Turnabout Variation
by the indecisive bird
Summary: On March 3 of the year Δ51, Jesse and Lukas were found dead in the Treasure Room. Lukas had a long gash across his chest, and Jesse's neck was broken. But what happened to them? How did they die? Why did they die? More importantly- who killed them? Their friends might not ever find out, but you can. All you have to do is click the link and read the story.
1. chopping down trees

"..Why can't _we_ get the fireworks?"

Jesse sighed, grumbling in exasperation upon hearing his younger friend complain. He hit the tree with the stone axe again, the cracks in the tree slowly spreading. "Because.." A grunt as he swung the axe, "Axel.. called dibs.."

They were gathering materials for their fireworks dispenser for the Endercon building competition, which was three weeks away. Honestly, none of the boys thought it was necessary to prepare this early, but Olivia was persistent. So here they were, in the heat of a Friday afternoon, chopping down trees to get some wood.

"Ugh.. It's so _hot_.." Reuben complained, taking his jacket off. He dropped it between his legs as he sat cross legged under the shade of one of the trees. His brows furrowed as he observed his older friend, who was dressed in what could only be some of the worst clothes to wear in the summer- a long sleeved, black, collared shirt. Sure, he wasn't wearing jeans like Reuben was, but a black shirt? He didn't even roll up the sleeves!

"Don't you feel it?"

"If I'm feeling anything right now," He swung the axe again, which finally broke the tree. It shattered, the wood blocks dropping to the floor. Jesse picked them up. "It's annoyed by you not helping me get the wood."

Reuben grinned. "You've got it covered."

Jesse gave the boy an unimpressed look, the latter childishly sticking his tongue out in return. He rolled his eyes. "So how much more left?"

He took a quick look at his inventory. "Six."

"Whew." The boy fell back, his back hitting the tree behind him. "Six mo- oomph!"

Jesse stifled a laugh as Reuben winced in pain from the axe that he threw at him. Reuben was not pleased. He huffed, glaring at the older boy, who, at this point, was cracking up. "Jesse!"

"What?"

The boy stood up, holding his jacket in one hand and the axe in the other. "You nearly killed me!"

"Pfft." He waved his hand dismissively, "No I didn't. Anyway," He pointed at the tree Reuben was just sitting by, "Your turn."

Reuben's cheeks puffed in faux rage, which only made Jesse laugh harder. He sighed, mumbling "Fine," then went to mine the tree. Jesse crossed his arms and smirked, amused.

The boy wasn't wrong- it was actually pretty hot today. He tugged at his collar, feeling beads of sweat begin to trail down his forehead.

…wait a minute.

His back straightened, the feeling of someone watching him from behind taking over. "Reuben, do you-"

His vision filled with black before he could finish.

* * *

 **A/N: oh my god this thing's finally up**

 **so uh. if you're reading this.. yay! I hope you enjoy the story :'D**

 **updates'll be... i dunno, really. Not including this, I've got three chapters pre-written right now, currently working on chapter 4 as we speak. when do you want updates? 4 days apart, or weekly?**

 **ah well. either way. :p**

 **see you in the next chapter, and have a good day.**


	2. what a weird day

Jesse's left arm felt weird.

That was the first thing he noticed when he woke up.

"Nng…" He blinked, trying to get used to the dim lighting of the room. He pushed himself up and rolled up the sleeve of his left arm, glancing around as he did so. His brows furrowed.

The room he was in wasn't that big- it would probably take five or seven steps to get to the door, which was just beyond a small doorway. Left of the doorway was a dark crevice, probably big enough to fit a single person. To the right, a double chest with a torch, the only source of light in the room, above it.

His face scrunched in confusion. "Where the hell am I?" he mumbled. Then he looked down at his arm to see what was wrong with it.

His confusion only increased upon seeing it.

On his arm was the word ' _NONCHALANCE_.' A tattoo. He ran his fingers over it, checking to see if it were permanent. It was. The boy blinked. ' _I guess I have a tattoo now._ ' He glanced around again, rolling up the sleeve of his other arm, getting up from the bed as he did so. ' _No idea what 'nonchalance' is supposed to mean to me, though... Or what's going on, really._ '

 _Shuffle.. shuffle.. shuffle.._

He looked up at the ceiling, irritated. It wasn't that high, he'd only have to tiptoe to reach it. Which is why it was so easy to hear the sound of..something..shuffling on the rooftop. Mobs on the roof, perhaps?

He hummed as he looked at his surroundings, hands on his hips. ' _Let's find out._ '

He walked over to the chest, checking around the latch for anything red- which there wasn't. ' _Not a trapped one, then._ ' He opened the chest and peeked inside.

' _Well,_ ' A small smile appeared on his face. ' _This isn't something you come across on a normal basis._ ' Inside the chest was a set of enchanted weapons and tools (as well as a ridiculous amount of raw food, but that doesn't matter). Enchanted diamond shovel, enchanted bow, enchanted diamond sword…

But the hoe caught his eye. He picked it up and examined it. It was sharp, more than enough to pierce skin and muscle. He grinned, before pocketing the enchanted weapon and sifting through the rest of the chest. ' _I've got a scythe now._ '

 _Clack! Clack! Clack!_

He stopped upon hearing the sound of something hitting wood. He got up slowly, closing the chest as noiselessly as he possibly could. ' _Who's there?_ '

He drew out his scythe, just in case whoever _was_ there was hostile.

The figure continued to climb down, and then they got low enough that, if it weren't for the light of the torch, he probably wouldn't have seen even the slightest glimpse of her features.

"Olivia?"

The girl quickly turned to him. "Jesse!" She nearly ran to him, but stopped when she got close enough. Then she took a step back. "No… No, you're not Jesse."

' _..What?_ '

* * *

"Okay," he didn't tuck away the scythe, but he did lower it, "that's just stupid, Olivia. How could I not be Jesse?"

"Well… I mean.." Olivia took a few more steps back, hitting the wall of dirt behind her. "You do have his voice, but.." Her eyes narrow as she stared down at the ground, confused, no doubt.

"'But' what," he shook his head, "I could be like some guy in a mask? Come on, I've no reason to do that!"

' _Liar._ ' He brushed the thought away, instead watching Olivia for any reaction. She said nothing.

' _She doesn't trust me._ ' He snorted in his head, ' _Of course she doesn't trust me, she can't recognize me. ..Well,_ ' He shrugged inwardly, ' _she_ knows _me, but she doesn't know_ _my face_ _._ '

He blinked, realizing how strange this whole situation was. And to think he'd just been having a normal day just a while ago. ' _How does that even work? On that note, how long was I out?_ '

"Alright." He blinked, then looked back at Olivia, "If you really are Jesse, then you should be able to answer this question correctly."

' _Oh, please not the 'which would you rather?' questions.._ '

"How did we meet?"

He froze in place, the question taking him by surprise. ' _Well crap._ ' He bit his lip, and looked away, pretending to look like he was thinking of the answer. ' _I can't remember._ ' He took a few seconds, contemplating on whether he should bluff or tell the truth.

' _Bluffing_ _just might exacerbate things_ _, so.._ ' He held up his free hand defensively and pulled out the most 'normal person' thing he could say out of his head. "Olivia, you've gotta trust me when I say that I'm Jesse, alright?" He put a hand to his chest, "I'm sorry that I can't remember how we met, but I really am Jesse."

The skeptical look on her face wasn't helping the situation. He grumbled, then pocketed the scythe, now holding both his hands up in a shrug. "What do I have to do to make you believe me?"

She held her chin in thought. Looking at her now, he realized how she seemed to be just a little… older? Or was she just really tired? There were some bags under her eyes. Not too noticeable, but they were there. She also seemed to be a lot more confident- maybe not in how she acted, but her posture told him a lot. _Just what is going on here?_

"What did we build for this year's Endercon Building Competition?" She finally asked, "You can at least remember that, right?"

' _This year's building competition?_ ' He made a look of utter confusion, glancing from Olivia to the wall. "The building competition hasn't even happened yet.." He said, his tone laced with a confused 'shouldn't you know that?'

Olivia's posture completely dropped. She slouched, a hand dropping to her side while the other was on her hip. "What?" Her tone was completely flat, deadpan maybe, and also confused.

"Yeah," Jesse held the nape of his neck, "but if it helps, we were planning on building a fireworks dispenser."

The girl gave him a baffled stare, before she fixed her posture and, with her free hand, pinched the bridge of her nose. She seems like she's had a long day. "There is _definitely_ something up here, then." She muttered.

He placed his hands on his hips. "You only realize that now?" He asked sarcastically. She gave him a tired glare, before waving her hand. "Let's just look around." Jesse silently agreed, shrugging as the two began to look around the room.

Olivia glanced around, then her eyes landed on the chest. "What was in there?"

"Enchanted weapons," Jesse started to step towards the bed, fiddling with the sheets, "and a crap ton of raw food."

She raised a brow. "Is that where you got your enchanted hoe?"

He frowned, his eyes narrowing as he took out the weapon, pointing at it. "It's a _scythe_." He kept it in his pocket again, "Get it right, Liv."

"..'Liv?'"

Jesse didn't have to look up from fixing the sheets from their once-crumpled state to know Olivia's reaction. She more than likely had a bewildered look on her face. "Yeah, that's your nickname." He put his hands on his hips, admiring his work. Then he frowned. ' _The colors of beds are so boring.._ '

He heard the sound of something clicking shut. He turned, to see Olivia's hands just letting go of the chest. Her head almost hit the torch on the wall as she got up. "I don't have a nickname."

"...You do now."

Olivia sighed, rubbing her eyes. She turned to see Jesse inspecting the dark crevice with the ladder. "Hey Olivia," He looked up the crevice, where he could see the faint glow of what might be a torch. "What's the room upstairs look like? Any different than this one?"

She shook her head. "Not really. It looks almost exactly the same, if you remove the door and chest."

He huffed in disappointment. "So no chest upstairs. Bummer." He turned around to look at the door. It was a normal, wooden door- so the four holes on the top were there. He squinted to try and see what was outside, but it was so dark, he could barely see anything save for the soft glow of some lights, but even those were off to the far side.

"Hey, do you have a tattoo?" Olivia suddenly asked. He looked back at her.

"Yeah, do you?"

She put her right arm under the light of the torch, showing the tattoo written on her arm. ' _LOGIC_ ,' it read. "What does yours say?"

"Nonchalance." He pointed at it, moving so that it wasn't covered by the shadow of the wall.

"What do you think they mean?"

"No idea. They're definitely permanent, though." He held his chin in thought. ' _So Olivia's got a tattoo too, then._ ' He filed away the information in his head, with no doubt that it'll come up again later on.

' _We have to have been given these tattoos for a reason. Why would anyone tattoo some random words on us? Unless they're not_ _random…_ ' He blinked, ' _IDs, maybe? But why can't you just use our real name? Maybe they can't use our real names._ ' He pursed his lips, ' _Why not, then?_ '

Olivia hummed, leaning from behind the wall to look at the doorway. "Is there anything outside?"

He tucked the thought away for now, going back to the topic at hand, and shrugged. "Only one way to find out." He reached out and opened the door, pushing it open. Once it did, he stepped outside. His eyes widened upon seeing the rest of their environment.

Several feet from the front of the hut was a large, arched gate made entirely of wood, decorated with fence posts and three torches. One for each side, and another at the top. At the center-top was a single block of pink wool. Stretching from both sides of the gate was an incredibly tall hedge that seemed to disappear into an abyss of pure darkness.

He squinted. Or did it?

"Whoa…"

He ignored Olivia's awed reaction in favor of looking around a bit more. Specifically at the ridiculous amount of darkness around them. He looked up, searching in vain for any sight of the moon or the stars. But there was nothing but pure black. "There's never been such a thing as a starless or moonless night, has there?" He asked, finally turning to Olivia. She was staring up at the hut before he turned to him.

"No, why?"

"Look up."

She did, an astonished gasp escaping her lips. "Oh.."

"Yeah." He put a hand on his hip, "What do you think it is? Can't be-"

"An update?" She finished for him, then shook her head. "No, we would've been notified."

He hummed, then looked at the hut to see what Olivia was so fascinated with. Hanging above the door, presumably where the second floor room was, was a green banner with the symbol of a single wheat over a blue-green circle. The only thing lighting it was a torch that was set a block beside it. There was another torch right beside the door.

He raised a brow, but didn't comment.

Instead, he circled the hut, looking at the rest of the space. Everything beyond twenty feet, maybe even less, was shrouded in darkness. He huffed in disappointment, then went back to the front of the hut, where he saw Olivia looking at the gate. She turned when he got close enough.

"Did you find anything?" She asked.

"Nothing. Everything's just shrouded in darkness… I'm surprised we haven't run into any mobs yet."

"That's true." She looked back at the gate, "So I guess that's our only way out here?"

"It's our only way anywhere." He placed his hands on his hips, then looked at Olivia, noting that she seemed to be a little taller, too. "Should we go?"

He blinked in surprise when she took out an enchanted bow and red-colored arrows, then drew the string back. All she needed was some armor and she'd pretty much look to be ready for battle. Which she never was. "Yeah."

He nodded awkwardly, confused by the whole situation, but moved on. "Alright then."

* * *

The maze was ridiculous. The walls were extremely high, at least as tall as two Endermen stacked on top of each other. And the spaces weren't that big, either. They fluctuated between being small enough that he and Olivia had to walk in single file (Olivia didn't trust him being behind her, so he had to stay in front), and just enough for some arm space should they have walked side by side.

That, and each path was almost as long as the walls were tall. Perhaps even longer than that. Unfortunately for them, there was an ungodly amount of twists and turns. Honestly, the only good thing about the maze was that there weren't that many trick paths, so at least getting through it was fairly easy.

Now that he had time to think, Jesse had to wonder: Was Reuben here, too? Is he in a similar situation? He was in the same place Jesse was in, after all. ' _Not unless the person who brought me here was only after me.._ '

The boy heaves a sigh. ' _I'll find out when we get through this maze._ '

* * *

Jesse has absolutely no idea how much time has passed, but he's getting bored, they haven't gotten out of the maze yet, and the silence between him and Olivia was not helping one bit. He turned to the girl, who was a little ways away behind him, and spoke up. While walking backwards. "So while we go through this maze.. What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?" The girl didn't respond, only giving him a half-lidded glare. "Come on, we can share stories!"

There was another moment of silence, which annoyed Jesse, before Olivia spoke up. "Why should I trust _you_?"

A bewildered, yet amused, smile appeared on his face. ' _Has Olivia always had trust issues?_ ' He breathed a laugh, hands held up in a surrender, "Olivia, I honestly swear I'm Jesse. And you know that I never lie, right?"

He mentally laughed at the glaring contradiction in his statement.

" _My_ Jesse told me that." She looked away for a moment, before turning her head back to him. "I don't know about you, though." She tightened her grip on her weapon, brisk walking while simultaneously keeping her distance from Jesse. He huffed, disappointed.

"Alright, fine." He turned away again, just in time to avoid walking into a wall. He blinked, then stepped to the side, hearing the faint sound of Olivia stifle a laugh as he did so. His brows raised in slight confusion, but he said nothing.

The two continued on through the maze with no conversation. There really wasn't any tension there- none that Jesse felt, at least. He did steal some quick glances at Olivia, who didn't seem to be at ease. He'd ask what's up, but considering his earlier attempt at conversation, he shut up before he said anything and moved on.

Suddenly, from out of the blue, a shrill scream filled the air. Jesse blinked and looked around in surprise. ' _So someone else is here, then. Good to know._ '

Then Olivia sped by him, her brisk walk turning into a run. "Don't just stand there, we have to help!"

"How do you know they need help?!"

She gave him a look, before continuing on through the corner. "Come on!"

He grumbled, "Fine," then ran after his 'friend.'

It took them a little while, but the two finally got themselves out of the maze. A large clearing greeted them, with a lake right in the middle of it. At the other side of the lake was some sort of commotion.

"What's going on here?!" Olivia asked (or demanded), raising her voice as she ran to the other side of the lake. Jesse did the same, but through the right side instead of the left. He stopped mid-run upon seeing what was going on.

"Oh my god.." Olivia stepped back, her hands flying to her mouth in shock.

Right there, in front of the entrance (exit?) to another path in the maze, was a body. Still and lifeless, blood covering its chest. The girl standing over it, diamond axe in hand, looked between the two of them.

"Okay," she raised her free hand defensively, "I know this looks bad... But just to let you know," The ravenette bit her lip as she pointed to the corpse. "I didn't do that."

Jesse blinked in surprise.

This was _definitely_ not how he thought his day was going to go.

* * *

 **A/N: did i say four days? Oh. Whoops. :P well i mean it HAS technically been four days for me (it's like 12:51 AM rn haha)**

 **I mean, you just saw how short this is, right? I don't think a chapter that's this length is worth three or four days.**

 **i guess i'm just stalling 'cause I take way too long trying to write. Oh well. (Good thing i have pre written chapters mwuahahaha)**

 **Review replies!  
**

 **ArizaLuca - [Four days it is, then! :D] [Thanks Ariza. :)] [oh and uh, btw, i hope you don't mind me using an 'a/n system' similar to yours.. o-o i'm pretty paranoid about this stuff so uh]  
**

 **Emily the Avenger - [Not sure what you found awesome about that one prologue, but okay! I'll take that xD I'm just glad to know you enjoyed it.]**

 **Rebecca Ripple - [I'm glad to know that you're interested! This fic means a bunch to me, so.. it's hard to explain haha but yeah, haha, thanks. (I hope I don't let down any expectations oh no-)] [It's no problem. And actually, now that I think about it, yeah, is IS pretty hard to find male Jesse fics. Weird.] [oH MY GOD YEAH FINALLY SOMEONE WHO THINKS THE SAME THING LIKE? ? ? SHE SOUNDS SO ASSERTIVE? ? AND? ? MEAN? ? ? LIKE? ? ? male jesse is much nicer tbh] [Yes, he did hahaha It's human Reub for this fic.]  
**

 **Alice Forshadow - [And see you shall! :D I'm happy to know it's got you excited. :3]**

 **Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic day! ^_^  
**


	3. rip in pieces but not really in pieces

"Also," the girl turned back to Olivia, "Olivia?! You're here too?"

The girl in question didn't say anything, instead drawing her bow, eyes and arrow fixated on the ravenette. Someone else, however, spoke up. "Jesse!"

The boy turned to the all-familiar voice, seeing a blur of pink rush to him.

Reuben nearly knocked the wind right out of Jesse as he glomped him, almost causing the both of them to fall to the ground. Luckily for them, they didn't. The younger boy then hid himself behind Jesse as he brought his attention back to the matter at hand. He can worry about Reuben being here later.

Olivia tightened her grip on her bow, pulling back the arrow just a little further. "Answer me honestly: Did you kill him?!"

"I didn't!"

"Liar!"

...Wait, did she just call herself a liar? Jesse's eyes narrowed, scanning the area for any other potential source for the voice, to find a girl in dark blue overalls standing right where Reuben had just come from. She spoke just as his eyes landed on her. "I saw you! Th-the both of you were fighting, only y-you c-could've-!"

"But I didn't!"

Before Jesse could even begin to question why they had the same voice, someone with literally the exact same voice as the others screamed out "No!" And it sounded like it came from behind him. He turned, slightly struggling with Reuben still holding on to him, to see a girl (boy? It's hard to tell with the hair. Might be a girl, considering the voice) in yellow overalls, beside.. Axel?

Yellow Overalls stepped back in shock, visibly shaking where she stood. Then she ran for the corpse, swears and the word 'no' mumbled like a mantra as she did so. While that happened, Axel exclaimed "Jesse?!" causing Jesse, Axe Girl and the one in dark overalls to turn to the boy in green. Axe Girl dropped the diamond axe in surprise.

"Axel?!"

"Jesse, what's going on?!"

"Why are you asking _me?_ "

Jesse ignored them, instead moving along to where Yellow Overalls was, forcing Reuben to stop clinging to him as he did so. The two walked over to the girl. She was still holding the body (which had familiar blonde hair, he noticed), her head hung low as she let go of its neck. Her shoulders were shaking, as if she were crying.

She probably _was_ crying.

Once he got close enough, though, she suddenly, in seemingly one swift move, wiped her tears, got up and brought out an enchanted diamond shovel (which caused Jesse to inwardly snicker), extending her arm as she threateningly pointed it at Axe Girl (he refused to call her 'Jesse'). " _ **Did you do this?**_ " She asked, tears streaming down her face. Her voice was dark and scarily calm, yet shaky and filled with rage, all at once.

Axe Girl heard the anger in her voice as well, causing her to step back, a hand defensively held out. "N-no! No, I didn't, I swear!"

Jesse rolled his eyes. ' _Oh, this again._ ' Bored, he ignored the scene and instead looked at the corpse to finally see who it was. He stepped closer to get a better look. The hair was certainly familiar, as were the clothes and the face…

Oh.

 _Oh._

Lukas. One of the members of the Ocelots, the most obnoxious group of people Jesse's ever known. And their leader was dead. His whole chest was covered in fresh blood, which almost hid the long, deep gash that ran across his chest. Jesse's brows furrowed.

' _Since when did Lukas have a neckla-?_ '

"Why won't you believe me?!"

Jesse grumbled as his thoughts were interrupted by one of the identical-voiced girls yelling _and_ Reuben tugging urgently at his shirt. When Jesse glanced at him, the boy only pointed to the scene unfolding before them. He got up and turned, his eyes widening in surprise upon seeing it.

Axe Girl was being shielded by Axel (Jesse had to stifle a laugh at how he accidentally made her nickname similar to Axel's name), who was blocking Yellow Overalls from attacking her with the enchanted shovel. The latter held up the shovel, still pointing it at the ravenette. "You were the one with the axe, you were the one standing over the body," She seethed amidst sniffles and the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, "So I am _so sorry_ if I find whatever you say hard to believe!"

"Red, stop!" Axel shoved 'Red' away as she stepped closer, but the shove only managed to knock her a couple of steps back. "She didn't do it!"

"How can you be so sure, Axel?! Huh?" She stepped closer, glaring daggers at him as she did so. She only had to tilt her head a bit to look straight into his eyes. In fact, now that Jesse looked, she seemed to be almost as tall as Petra. Weird. "We weren't anywhere near here when we heard that scream, how do you know she didn't kill him?!"

"How do you know she did?!" He retorted.

" _ **Oh my god, both of you, shut up!**_ "

Wait, what?

Jesse blinked in surprise, his hands reaching for his throat in an attempt to see if he said that. He certainly didn't say anything, and the voice sounded like it came from behind, so..

He turned around to look at the source, as did Red, who gave an aggravated "What?!"

Said source was a young man around Jesse's age in a white shirt and red suspenders. Jesse could only come to this conclusion because everyone else whose heads were turned happened to be looking in his direction. He glanced at the others. Besides the new guy in white, there was also another boy in a blue and white turtleneck, who was standing next to Olivia; and Petra (surprisingly), who Dark Overalls was currently clinging on to like a lifeline, similar to how Reuben did to him.

His brows furrowed upon seeing the others. ' _Everyone here seems to be within the same age range,_ ' he noticed, ' _I wonder why?_ '

"Calm down." The boy said, "We won't be able to get anywhere if we're all arguing over stupid things."

Before Red could even say anything, he turned to her, "And I mean accusing her of murder, not the murder itself."

The girl glared, a frown on her face, but said nothing. Blue Sweater Boy spoke up next. "He's right."

Jesse cringed. It felt _so weird_ hearing the same voices speak one after the other, he almost didn't want to talk.

"Okay, before anyone says anything.." Axe Girl put a hand to her chest, "I didn't kill him."

"But I s-saw you attack him!" Dark Overalls accused, "Fr-from a hole in the hedge, I s-saw you!"

Jesse kneaded his forehead, ' _This is_ literally _the opposite of what White Shirt_ just _told everyone to do._ ' He sighed, and crossed his arms and spoke up before anyone else could. "You know what? Before we get to the topic of whodunnit, how about we all just get our bearings and…" he shrugged, "introduce ourselves?"

Petra looked like she was about to object to this, but Jesse continued. "Look, I'll start. My name is Jesse," he gestured to the boy in pink beside him, "And this is Reuben."

He looked at each of them to see how they'd react, to see most of them in a mixed state of confusion and shock. His brows raised, "Well..?"

"I'm.. uh.." Dark Overalls started to speak, but as she spoke, the volume of her voice got lower and lower, until absolutely no one but Petra heard what she said. White Shirt facepalmed.

"Alright, whatever. My name is Jesse," he pointed at Blue Sweater, "his name is _also_ Jesse, and so help me if someone else says their name is Jesse I will explode."

Axe girl opened her mouth and raised a finger, then reconsidered, closing it and lowering her hand instead.

"Well that's too bad," Red sniffled as she put a hand to her hip, "Because my name is _also_ Jesse." She jerked her head in Axe Girl's direction, "And I have no doubt that hers is too."

Reuben sputtered, "How does that make any sense? Why do all of you share the same name?"

"L-Look, that doesn't matter right now." Dark Overalls said quickly, which didn't help her stutter, "Lukas i-i-is d-dead a-and we need t-to do s-something ab-about _her_." She pointed at Axe girl.

"For the last time-!"

"Okay, quit it!" Blue Sweater yelled. He flailed his hands as he spoke, "We don't know the full story yet, and it's obvious that _your_ stories don't line up, so why don't we look around and see what we can find. Deal?"

A chorus of disgruntled sounds of agreement were the response to this. "As long as Jesse's proved innocent," Axel crossed his arms, his eyes narrow. There was no doubt that he was targeting his statement at Red, "I'm all for it."

"Then it's settled." White Shirt said. "Axel, you keep an eye on.." his brows furrowed for a second as he tried to search for something to call Axe Girl, "..your friend. Petra, you're with the one holding the shovel. Neither of those two should be allowed in the investigation."

Red gave White Shirt a tear-filled glare, before she hung her head and heaved a shaky sigh. She then reluctantly followed Petra to a corner by one of the gates, her hands going up to her face to wipe away her tears. Dark Overalls began to follow Petra, but was stopped by White Shirt. Axel and Axe Girl headed to their own corner, which left Olivia, Blue Sweater, Jesse and Reuben.

Jesse turned to Reuben, a brow raised upon seeing the younger boy's expression: Wide eyes filled with shock and concern, and his mouth hung open. He poked his forehead. "You okay, Reub?"

Reuben shook his head, "Not.. not really."

He wasn't even directly looking at Jesse as he said that. Jesse followed Reuben's line of sight, his eyes landing on Red. He looked back at Reuben, who was blinking up at him. "She doesn't look okay… Can I..?"

Jesse rolled his eyes, waving his hand. "Yeah, sure."

Reuben nodded, immediately running for Red's corner. Jesse watched him go before turning back to the corpse, which Blue Sweater and Olivia were just beginning to investigate (although the both of them seemed to be a little uneasy as they did). He knelt down and moved to get a better look at the body, only to cringe and instinctively move away once he got a whiff of the weird mix of smells coming from it. The copper smell of blood, Jesse could recognize instantly, but everything else was difficult to pinpoint. They also, apparently, didn't mix well with the blood. Jesse had to cough to get his bearings. ' _What the actual hell?_ ' He looked down at the body - at Lukas, he realized. It only sunk in now - as he finally got used to the smell.

He looked up at Blue Sweater and Olivia to ask if they recognized the smell, but the two were too busy talking about..something. Jesse couldn't quite hear what they were saying, despite the fact that they were right in front of him. All he managed to catch was the word 'ivor.'

Blowing a raspberry in annoyance, Jesse looked back down at the corpse to examine something else to keep himself busy. More specifically, Lukas's bloody chest. The blood basically covered the entire thing, including the weird necklace the blond had around his neck, but that part didn't matter to Jesse. The wound was much more interesting.

"The murder weapon's gotta be the axe, right?" He thought aloud, then looked around for any possible weapons. He only found two. One was the enchanted diamond sword in Lukas's hand, and the other was Axe Girl's weird axe. It had a pretty little design on it.

He reached over and picked it up to examine it closely, only to realize that he was wrong. It wasn't a design, it was blood. The glow of the enchantment may have made the blood look purple, but the smell was undeniable. As for the design.. it was blood splatter. The stain spread opposite of the main edge of the blade. His eyes narrowed, then he looked over to the body, comparing the wound to the blade to see if the shape fit. It did. ' _So the point of impact was this part of the blade. Good to know._ ' his brows furrowed. ' _Is 'point of impact' the right term? Oh well._ '

He twirled the axe, looking for anything else that was noteworthy and, once again, he found himself looking at the blood splatter. There was a much larger amount of blood on one side of the blade than there was on the other. A much, much larger amount, actually. And it just so happens that on that side of the axe, there were numerous specks of blood on the part of the handle just beneath the blade.

Blue Sweater stared at him with a bewildered look. "What are you doing?" Olivia glanced up from the pen and pendant in her hands, quirking a brow upon seeing Jesse examining the axe.

He held up a finger without looking away from or letting go of the weapon. "Shush."

The pair frowned, then went back to examining the corpse. "Just tell me if you find anything." Blue Sweater said as he began to check Lukas's arms. Jesse hummed absentmindedly in response.

Returning to what he was doing, Jesse held the axe with both hands and twirled it, stopping once the larger blood stain faced him. Then he extended his arms and held it out in front of him, making it so that the side of the blade with the larger blood stain faced up. The axe was now facing his right. ' _There's no way_ that _much blood could have gone on the axe if it hit him straight. Not with that pattern._ ' He pursed his lips as he visualized it the other way around, with the axe now facing left and the smaller stain facing up. ' _And the smaller stain couldn't be here, unless.._ ' He fixed the position of the axe to how he visualized it in his head. Then he glanced down at Lukas. ' _Unless he was already lying down._ '

His eyes narrowed in contemplation, then he shook his head, ' _No, that still doesn't explain the blood splatter. The axe would have to be tilted for that to happen._ ' He tilted the axe as he visualized it in his head, where a figure was lying on its back as the axe lowered down on the chest, the weapon tilted slightly to the right of the perpetrator. Then, he pictured the other scenario, wherein the victim was standing up as they got hit, with the axe facing right of the perpetrator and tilted slightly upwards. ' _Same goes for that other scenario.'_

He shrugged. ' _Still, it's something. Might as well tell Blue Sweater here._ ' He paused, ' _I_ really _have to call him something else besides 'Blue Sweater,' it's a mouthful._ ' He tapped the boy's shoulder. Blue Sweater looked up, a look of surprise still lingering on his face.

"Yes?"

"I found something (I think), but first, what do I call you?"

The boy pursed his lips in thought. "Ineligible and I-"

"Ineligible?"

He frowned and looked back at Jesse, clearly upset about being interrupted. "The one in a white shirt and red suspenders."

"Oh." Jesse mentally face palmed. He felt stupid now.

"Anyway, Ineligible and I have been using our tattoos, so.. we might as well." He shrugged, "Call me Logic."

Jesse quirked a brow, "You and Olivia have the same tattoo?"

"Apparently. Anyway, yours says.." He tilted his head to read the tattoo on Jesse's arm, "Nonchalance?"

"Too long." He placed the axe down and held out his hand, "Call me Non."

The boy in front of him gave his hand an unimpressed glance, which Jesse took as a sign that he wasn't going to shake his hand. Olivia gave him a nudge, which had him rolling his eyes and giving a defeated sigh. "Fine." And he shook his hand.

It was still really weird hearing the same voice over and over, especially since it was _his own voice_ , but Jesse did his best to ignore it. He grinned as he let go of Logic's hand. "Anyway, about what I found." Jesse explained his, for lack of a better term, 'theory' to Logic. The boy in the sweater hummed as he pocketed the axe. "I see.."

Jesse watched Logic keep the axe in his pocket with narrowed eyes, then looked back up at him and Olivia. "What about you? Did you find anything?"

"As a matter of fact, we have."

"Two things, to be exact." Olivia added. She knelt down so that she was at (mostly) eye level with both of the boys and brought out a necklace. It was a pen and a pendant attached to a white string, the accessories and part of the string stained with blood. "We found this around Lukas's neck. It's hard to see because of the blood, but the pendant's an ocelot."

Jesse blinked. So _that_ was what the weird necklace was. "And the other thing?"

"He's got a tattoo, too." Logic directed his attention to Lukas's right arm, which did, in fact, have a tattoo written on it. ' _REDEMPTION_ ,' it read, written in the same fashion as all their other tattoos.

"Of course he does." Jesse face palmed, "You said Ineligible had a tattoo, right? Does Petra have one too?"

"Yeah, she does. The word ' _JUSTICE_ ' on her left arm." Jesse looked over at Petra to catch a glimpse of the tattoo, but her arms were behind her back. They were supporting her as she leaned back, sitting next to Red, whose head was buried in her knees. Her shoulders were shaking. "You can't see it right now with her sleeve on, but it's there."

Olivia mumbled something under her breath, but Jesse couldn't hear. Logic did, apparently, as he hummed in agreement to.. whatever she said. He turned his head back to them to try and hear, but failed. "Huh?"

The pair quickly glanced at Jesse. Olivia shook her head, "It's nothing."

He gave them a suspicious glare, then shook his head. ' _Whatever._ ' He looked back at Petra and Red, noticing that Reuben was jut walking there from the right. Right where Ineligible and Justice were. His brows furrowed in confusion before he brought his attention back to the crime scene. "Is there anything else here?" He wondered, going over everything they've come up with so far. There was the axe and how he died, the necklace, the tattoo, and.. oh.

The smell.

"Hey," Jesse looked up at Logic, "Do you happen to recognize that.." he twirled a finger at the corpse, "..weird..smell..coming from, uh.." He coughed into his fist, giving the corpse a disgusted look.

Logic pursed his lips, then reached into his pockets, taking out some shards of glass. "We found this." Some parts of the glass were round, and a couple were straight and shaped somewhat like a stick.

"What are they?"

"We're not entirely sure, but if we consider this and the smell.." He shrugged, "They could be potions for all we know-"

"They certainly smell it.." Olivia interjected.

"-but without someone familiar with potions, we can't say for sure what potion it was."

Jesse's eyes narrowed for a split second. ' _Why didn't he get upset at_ her _for interrupting him?_ ' He wondered, then looked down before either of the two could see his reaction.

"Anyway, I don't think there's anything else we can do right now, but we'll keep looking." Logic said, pocketing the glass once again. "In the meantime, we'll have to cover the body up. Could you look for some cloth? Preferably something like a banner."

It was Jesse's turn to give him a deadpan look, with a raised brow added to it. ' _That's a lot to ask for, considering we're in the middle of nowhere_.' He sighed as he stood up. "Sure."

Logic nodded his thanks, then returned to his own investigation with Olivia. Jesse bit his lip as he looked around.

' _Time to start looking around, I guess._ ' He sighed, holding the nape of his neck. He grumbled ' _What fun!_ '

* * *

 **A/N: i don't get timezones**

 **Yeah, I REALLY don't think more than one day is worth it for chapters this short. I dunno. Help here, please? And don't say 'whatever you want' because.. that.. doesn't really help. I mean, have you NOT seen my username? hELLO?  
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	4. the hunt for cloth and nicknames

Jesse frowned, wondering how his day could have gone like this. 'This' being getting stuck in the middle of who-knows-where with both people he already knew, one of them turning up dead, and a bunch of other people who just so happened to share the same voice and the same name. ' _I digress,_ ' he said in his head, brushing away all his questions about the current situation before they even came up, ' _I can worry about that later. Let's just look for that cloth and get it over with._ '

He looked around the area, wondering who he should go and talk to first. _'Let's see,_ ' he held his chin in thought as he looked at each group in the area. Dark Overalls was still talking to Ineligible, the girl combing her hair with her fingers as they spoke. She seemed nervous. Ineligible was just stern. ' _I probably shouldn't bother them,_ ' He thought, ' _As much as I'd_ love _to._ ' Then he looked at the next party he could talk to.

Red was still in her little corner with Petra and Reuben. Her back was against the hedge wall behind her, holding her arms as she stared into space. Petra was watching her with her knees to her chest. Reuben was sitting cross-legged beside the brunette. He was saying something, but Jesse couldn't hear.

He'd just spoken to Olivia and Logic, so by process of elimination, the only other people he could bother were Axel and Axe girl. He turned and walked over to their corner, where they were casually chatting.

In the middle of a murder.

Jesse muffled a snort as he made it to the black haired pair in an unsuccessful attempt to keep them from hearing it. Axe girl turned to him just as he made it up to them. She waved, "Hello, other-Jesse!"

The boy made a face. "Uh, I'd really rather you not call me that."

Axe girl frowned, and crossed her arms. "Yeah, it's a mouthful, isn't it?"

' _Not really the reason I had in mind,_ ' Jesse thought with a frown, ' _but sure._ '

The girl didn't seem to notice. She held her chin in thought for a moment, then her arms fell to her sides. "Alright, what's the word on your tattoo, then? See, look," She extended her left arm, showing off the word tattooed to the inner side of it. "You can call me 'Thief!'"

Jesse couldn't help but laugh. "Why's your name 'Thief?'"

She shrugged, a sly grin on her face as she held her hands behind her back. "No clue." Axel stifled a laugh as Jesse skeptically raised a brow. "...Sure."

Thief clapped her hands. "So! What does your tattoo say?"

"Oh, uh.." Jesse extended his right arm in the same fashion as Thief, "Nonchalance."

Axel's brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing at the tattoo. "Non-what?"

"Hello, Non!" Thief grinned from ear-to-ear as she held out the hand of her tattooed arm, "I'm Thief! Pleasure to meet you!"

Jesse walked closer and silently accepted the handshake. ' _She shares the same name as me, and she's a perky woman who acts like today's a normal day._ ' He smiled as they let go, ' _I like her._ '

"So what did you need, Non?"

' _I might as well get straight to the point._ ' he cleared his throat, "Do you guys happen to have a human-sized cloth that could, I dunno.. cover up a body?"

The pair gave him a confused look, until Thief glanced at the body and winced. "Ah.." She held the nape of her neck as her head lowered, her gaze switching from the floor, to the body, to Jesse. She laughed nervously. "No, sorry. I've got nothing."

Axel shook his head. Looks like he didn't have any cloth either. Jesse blew an annoyed raspberry. "I see." He looked away for a moment, then turned back to the ravenettes. "So how are you guys? You doing okay?"

The two friends shared a weary glance. She shrugged. "Considering someone just died and his girlfriend-" Jesse quirked a brow at this, "-thinks I killed him? Plus the fact that a bunch of other people share my name?"

Axel crossed his arms. "We could be worse."

"Wait," Jesse held up a hand, "'girlfriend?'"

Thief immediately pointed at Axel, eyes wide. "That's what he told me!"

Jesse craned his neck to look at Axel for answers, as did Thief. Axel only gave them both an innocent shrug. "What? She sounded like she was!"

The boy crossed his arms as he gave his taller friend an unimpressed look, brows raised. Thief simply glanced around. "So she didn't actually tell you that?"

"Does it matter?" Axel asked, crossing his arms as he huffed.

Jesse's eyes narrowed at Axel. Sure, it would explain her reaction earlier, and…

He heaved a sigh and rubbed his eyes, "Yeah, kind of. It just reminded me of something," He looked back up at his (Thief's?) friend, "Why did you call her 'Red' earlier?"

Axel blinked as he uncrossed his arms. "'Red.' Y'know, short for 'redemption.' It's the word on her arm."

"So the tattoo on her arm says 'redemption?'"

"Yeah."

' _So Olivia and Logic have the same tattoos, Red and Lukas have the same tattoos…_ ' He held his chin in thought, his brows furrowing. ' _I'm beginning to see a pattern here._ ' He looked up. "Axel, does your tattoo say 'thief' too?"

The other boy's dark eyes blinked in surprise. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

The brunette shrugged. "Lucky guess." He glanced around, then clapped his hands. "Anyway, I've gotta go. Thanks, guys."

Thief smiled and waved. "You're welcome!"

He returned the wave, then turned back to face the lake, and the rest of the area. Red's corner was at the left, and Ineligible and Dark Overalls were at the right- closer to the crime scene, where Olivia and Logic were busy talking. Now, Jesse could either talk to all of them in a full circle from the crime scene by talking to Petra, Red and Reuben first; or he could just go ahead and ask Dark Overalls what her stupid tattoo said, because there was no doubt in Jesse's mind that her name was also Jesse.

But, even with that, Jesse chose to talk to Petra, Red and Reuben. ' _I don't know what Reuben's tattoo is._ ' He thought as he walked left, ' _And though I could guess for myself, I still wanna see. I could be wrong, for all I know._ '

Reuben's head snapped in his direction as he got closer, the grass beneath him making noise as he walked over. "Hey, Jesse." He said quietly. Weird. Reuben's not usually like this.

"Hey." He looked over to the two girls in front of him. Red was still in the same position as before. Her hair was a mess (and was also, Jesse now realized, cut in basically the exact same style as his). There were dark circles under her eyes, and there were still tear stains lining her cheeks. She gave him a half lidded glare. He titled his head and looked at her in the exact same manner. ' _If you want me to go away, that's too bad. I'm staying here._ '

She only blinked, as if she heard his thoughts and that was her response. Then she looked down and let her hands drop to her lap, where she began to twiddle her thumbs.

Then he looked at Petra. Unlike earlier, she was standing up, but that wasn't the only thing different from when he saw her earlier. So much anger radiated from her that Jesse almost felt like _not_ talking to her and just leaving her alone. Almost. She leaned against the same hedge wall as Red with her arms crossed and glaring at someone who must've been behind Jesse. He turned to follow her gaze, to see Thief holding her left arm and shuffling about where she stood. Axel himself seemed uneasy.

' _I wonder what_ they _did?_ '

"What is it?" Red asked from where she sat, although it sounded more like a croak.

Jesse blinked, "I just have a few questions. That's all."

She craned her neck to look up at him, the same angry look from earlier still on her face. "Go on."

"First off," Jesse turned to Reuben, "Do you have a tattoo on your arm?"

Reuben nodded as he held up his right arm, pulling the pink jacket sleeve in the process. "Yeah, here." He pointed to the tattoo, which had the word ' _NONCHALANCE'_ on it, just like all the others. The younger boy's eyes lowered to Jesse's own right arm. "You have the same one?" Jesse nodded, briefly showing him the tattoo before turning to Petra.

"Your tattoo says 'justice,' right?"

She stopped glaring at Thief and Axel and turned to him, tilting her head as she put a hand to her hip. "Who told you that?"

"Logic did." He pointed at the boy at the other side of the lake, "Do you happen to share that tattoo with anyone else?"

She jerked her head in Dark Overall's direction. "Yeah, Jess-" she stopped herself, "The girl in yellow stripes has the same tattoo."

Jesse looked at the girl in dark overalls. ' _So, Justice then._ ' He blinked, then looked back at Petra. "Okay then. Next question," he pointed a thumb at the corpse, which Olivia and Logic were standing over, "Do you happen to have a human-sized cloth that could cover that up?"

When they looked at the corpse, Red drew her knees to her chest, Reuben winced, and Petra frowned. She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. "Yeah, I've got some cloth." From out of her inventory she brought out two capes. She handed them both to Jesse. "Logic and I found these in this hut we woke up in."

"You woke up in a hut too?"

"We all did." Red said suddenly. Both Petra and Jesse looked down at her. Her eyes were fixed on them, but her head was kept low. Then she hugged her knees and looked away.

That reminds him. He mentally grinned as he spoke, "Third question. What's your relationship with Lukas?"

She glared at him. Not the reaction he was expecting, but he'll take it. "Why do you care?"

He shrugged. "Just asking. Axel said you were his girlfriend." Red's face expressed shock for a second, but it was gone in an instant, replaced with a glare. Petra's and Reuben's surprised eyes immediately went to the girl, who said nothing. He crouched so that he was at eye level with the brunette. "I just wanted to confirm it."

She shifted and buried half her face in her knees. All Jesse could see now were her glaring eyes, which were almost covered by her dyed-red bangs (this girl seemed to have a thing for the color red). There was silence for a few moments, the two having a staring contest as it happened. He smirked. Her eyes narrowed. "He was - _is_ \- my best friend." She buried her head in her knees, muffling her reply. Jesse only barely managed to hear her. "End of story."

Jesse glanced at Reuben, who was very obviously pitying Red. He pursed his lips as he turned to look at Jesse, eyes sad. He only returned the gesture with a dull look. Reuben's eyes hardened into a glare. Jesse responded with an 'oh well' face as he shrugged, then he stood up and turned to Petra. "Yeah, that's all I've got for now." He flashed a grin and held up the capes, "Thanks for these!"

Petra raised a brow, "You're welcome." He could've sworn it sounded more like a question, but he brushed it off. His grin grew wider. Then he pocketed the capes and walked away, humming a happy little tune as he did so.

The only pair left now was Ineligible and Justice. ' _What a weird name, Justice._ ' He mused as he walked over. The girl was biting her lip and glancing around. She was sweating bullets. Ineligible, on the other hand, had his arms crossed. ' _I liked Dark Overalls better._ ' Justice's eyes landed on Jesse as he got to them. She gave him a small smile, "H-Hello!" Ineligible turned to him slightly, and Jesse gave them both a grin.

Ineligible rolled his eyes, "What do you want?"

Jesse pouted and sent the boy a glare, before turning so that he was facing both of them. "What've you guys been talking about?"

"O-oh." Justice started combing her hair again, "uh.. Eli was just-"

"Eli?"

She shrugged. "It sounds nicer than Ineligible."

Jesse raised a brow as his eyes briefly looked to Ineligible. A small smile was on his face, but it faded as quickly as it came. Justice continued, with a little struggle. "A-anyway, Eli was j-just asking about what I s-saw." She bit her lip and glanced to her left nervously, "Y-you know, wh-when…" She coughed into her fist, the word 'that' coming through there somewhere.

"So what _did_ you see, exactly?"

Justice opened her mouth to answer, but Eli beat her to it. "Don't bother asking her." He said rather sardonically, "She's just going to be a stuttering mess." The girl frowned and glared at Eli, but the taller boy sent it back. She shrunk, then bit her lip and looked away. The misty-green eyes of the boy lingered on her for a while, then went back to Jesse, who was watching the spectacle with a mix of utter confusion and amusement. He frowned. "What?"

A pause, then Jesse shook his head. "Nothing. Could you tell me what she saw, then?" Eli nodded.

"You know where Lukas died, right?" Jesse hummed in confirmation. Eli took hold of his shoulder - catching Jesse by surprise - and moved it, so that both boys were now facing the scene.

Lukas's body was lying face up, several feet away from both the lake and the entrance with the orange wool block on the gate. Eli pointed at the scene, "Do you see the hole in one of the hedge walls? Specifically in the wall between the red and the orange entrances."

Jesse squinted, to see that there was, in fact, a hole in the hedge between the two entrances. "It's hard to see, but.. yeah, I can see it." he glanced at Eli, "That's the 'hole in the hedge' she was talking about earlier?"

Eli nodded. He looked back at the hole. Seeing Olivia stand a few feet away from it, and knowing that they're both the same height, the hole was at just the right height for him to see through. He turned and looked at Justice, comparing his height to hers. They were the same. "So you saw everything clearly? Your view wasn't, y'know," He checked the hole to see if there were any leaves or branches in the 'window.' From where he was, it didn't seem like there was anything there. "obstructed or anything?

"N-not at all. I-I s-saw them very c-clearly." She bit her nails as she spoke, "Th-they were p-pretty close to the hedge t-too, s-so that helped."

"So what did you do?"

She gulped. "I.. I tried c-calling out to them t-to s-stop but…" She gripped her hair, most of its curly locks resting on one shoulder. "Lukas got d-distracted. I g-guess that was when sh-she g-gained the upper hand, 'cause.." Then she shrunk again, mumbling something neither Eli nor Jesse could hear. The latter boy sighed and waved his hand.

"Alright. I'll see you guys later."

"Actually," Eli spoke up, "We're coming with."

Justice blinked. "We- we are?"

Eli turned to her, giving her a rather frightening glare. She made a scared squeak, then followed. "O-okay."

Jesse raised a brow, then quickly turned and walked to the crime scene. He took out the capes from his pocket as he walked over. "Hey, Logic!"

"What?" The boy looked up, only to get two capes to the face, knocking him down to the floor. Luckily for him, he didn't land on the body.

Logic sputtered as he struggled to get the tangled cloth off of him. "What the hell?!" Jesse laughed. Olivia frowned as she helped Logic with the cloth. Once it was off him, he gave Jesse a glare, but it only got the boy to give him a mischievous grin. Logic only sighed, giving Jesse his thanks before covering the body with the capes.

Once the deed was done, he stood up and placed his hands on his hips. "So what now?" Jesse asked. Logic shrugged and was about to speak, but Eli beat him to it.

"Well, you can do two things." The taller boy crossed his arms. "Either you help me investigate more of the area, or help Justice find out what everyone else was doing at the time of the murder." Justice had yet another surprised look on her face, as if to say 'wait, what?'

"I'll investigate!" Jesse said immediately, not giving Logic or Olivia any time to consider their options. The latter two sighed, Logic face palming in exasperation.

After a brief pause, the boy's arms dropped to his side. "Alright, fine. We'll get everyone's testimonies." He looked between Eli and Jesse, "Good luck looking around." Then he, Olivia and Justice left their circle, leaving the other two behind. After watching them split up, Eli turned to Jesse.

"This place isn't going to investigate itself, you know."

Jesse nodded, then Eli walked south, to the other side of the lake.

* * *

 **A/N: this chapter is super short wth**

 **i think the timezones are what's messing with the updated/published thing. hmph.**

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	5. investigation overload

Jesse hummed, then looked down at the corpse. The capes managed to cover most of him, leaving only parts of his hands sticking out. Jesse's brows furrowed. His sword was gone. ' _Maybe Logic took it?_ ' He wondered as he lifted the cover, looking over the corpse once more.

He huffed when he found nothing new, letting the cover drop as he stood up. Honestly, now that the corpse was over and done with at this point, now's his chance to get a better understanding of the clearing.

So he looked around, his eyes eventually focusing on the lake, which he walked to. It wasn't too far from where the corpse was, so he got there in no time. Then he got down on his knees to get a better look at it. It wasn't very deep. If someone were to stand in it, it would probably only reach their knees. Then his thoughts went to fishes. ' _Are there any fishes?_ '

He searched eagerly, but found none. He grumbled. ' _This lake is a disappointment._ ' He stood up and resumed his investigation, finding himself looking at the gates.

There were six of them in total. All were made of wood, and all of them were decorated with torches and fence posts. Just like the one back at the hut. To add to that, they each also had a colored wool block on top. The one behind him right now had an orange block and, in a circular motion from left to right, the other gates had wool blocks the color of light blue, dark blue, red, pink and yellow. In between each was, if not hedge walls, darkness. His eyes narrowed.

Which reminds him…

He looked up, eyes widening in surprise to see a large cube floating in midair, composed entirely of glowstone blocks. ' _No wonder this place isn't as dark as the hut._ ' He thought, blinking, ' _A makeshift sun._ ' Then he looked around. Thinking about it now, the only torches in the area were the ones that were placed at the top and the sides of each gate. ' _Definitely not enough to light the whole place, then._ ' His eyes narrowed as they landed on the dark space between the light blue and the dark blue gates, ' _So then why…?_ '

He glanced over at the nearest torch, walking over to it and removing it from its handle. Once he got a good grip on the torch, he walked forward, shining the torch in the dark spaces as he passed by them. There wasn't much in between the orange and the light blue gates, save for the hedge where Justice witnessed the fight, so he moved on.

The space between the light blue and the dark blue gates was next. Jesse jogged to it, then shined the torch's light into the gap. There was nothing for a while, but halfway through, he stumbled upon something brown. He frowned, then stepped closer.

A trapdoor.

"Hey, uh, Eli?" He grinned, then stood up, and turned his head to look for the boy. "Eli!"

"What?!" His head popped up from behind the hedge of the red gate, annoyed.

Jesse pointed at the trapdoor. "I found something!"

Eli fully emerged from behind the hedge, then ran over. Once he made it to him, Jesse showed him the trapdoor. Eli's eyes widened. "Woah.."

"You think it leads to some sort of hideout?"

The boy raised a brow, but said nothing. Instead, he ran for the dark blue gate and grabbed the nearest torch, then came back. "Only one way to find out."

Then he walked to the trapdoor, opened it up, and jumped in.

A few seconds passed. "Are you dead?"

"Wha- no!" Eli yelled back.

"Then what's taking so long?"

"It's only been a few- ugh, nevermind, just come down here! I found something."

Jesse snickered before he followed Eli. He set down the torch near the trapdoor, then climbed down. He skipped the last few steps and jumped down, then gave his hands a disgusted stare. ' _Dust. Ew._ '

"What's so special down he-"

He interrupted himself when he turned around and saw what Eli wanted to show him. Both of them were in a tiny room, probably only big enough to fit five people, with a low ceiling. Two torches (not including Eli's) illuminated the room. To the side was a crafting table and a chest, which Eli was standing next to. And finally, from where he stood, Jesse faced two railroads that went on into a dark tunnel. Seven carts occupied its tracks, with three on one, and four on the other. He blinked.

Then he looked back at the chest. "What did you find inside?"

Eli gave him a deadpan look. "Are you kidding me? I show you a room with tracks going who-knows-where, and your only concern is what's in the chest?"

"That wasn't my _only_ concern.."

The boy's brows raised, skeptical. His free hand went to his hip. Jesse gave him a grin. The former sighed. "Nothing but a slice of cake, and flint and steel." Jesse nodded, thoughtful. "So what was your supposed other concern?"

He pointed at the tracks. "Where do you think they lead?"

"To answers, I hope." Then Eli's arms dropped to his sides, and he walked towards the carts. "Come on."

"You really think walking into a dark tunnel in the middle of a murder mystery is a good idea?" He asked. Eli glanced at him.

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"I dunno," Jesse shrugged. "Getting someone else to come with us? Petra? Axel?"

Eli scoffed. "We can handle ourselves just fine, I'd think."

"Famous last words."

Green eyes glared at brown ones, the moment lasting for several seconds, before the former finally gave up. He rolled his eyes and sighed, "Alright, fine. Go get Olivia."

' _Aw, what?_ ' Jesse frowned, "Why _her_?"

"Because Axel is too busy watching Thief, and Petra is looking after Red. Olivia's the only one with free time." He reasoned, getting on one of the carts, torch in hand. "Get going."

Jesse groaned. "Fine.." He turned and climbed up the dusty ladder. Once he climbed out, he immediately rid his hands of any dust. As he did this, he looked at the torch. 'This is the only thing lighting this area.' He mused as he wiped his hands on his pants. He checked his hands for any dust and, satisfied with what he saw, he got up. A passing glance was given to the torch, before he shrugged and walked away. He made his way to Olivia, who was chatting with Logic and Justice.

"Hey, Olivia!" The trio turned to Jesse in surprise, Justice wincing and covering her ears. Was he too loud? "Eli and I found this secret underground passage. We're gonna go through it, but we need someone else with us." He pointed a thumb towards the direction of the trapdoor, "Could you come?"

She tiptoed and looked at what he was pointing at. She bit her lip, then nodded. "Sure." Then she glanced at Logic and Justice, "If you're good here?"

Justice smiled. "We've g-got it covered."

Logic simply nodded.

"Alright, then." Olivia shrugged, which was Jesse's cue to get back to the trapdoor.

"Just be careful." He heard Logic call out. It was probably directed at Olivia.

Jesse went down the hole first, jumping down instead of using the ladder. "Beware of dust!" he called, then turned and walked to the carts, tucking the torch in his pocket in the process. Eli was on the front most cart.

"Took you long enough." He said, arms crossed. Jesse stuck his tongue out at him, before turning away to see if Olivia was down yet. She was. She was also blinking in surprise. But that only lasted for a few moments before she walked on and boarded the last cart behind Jesse.

Without another word, Eli got the carts moving, immediately speeding off into the dark tunnel upon passing over a powered track.

The room at the end of the tracks looked almost exactly like the one they just came from, minus the chest. The crafting table and pair of torches were still there, though.

And so was a ladder going up.

Jesse hopped off the minecarts before Olivia and Eli got off, immediately running to the ladder. He looked up, expecting to see something else but, ultimately, all he saw was darkness beyond the holes of the trapdoor. How disappointing.

"Aren't you going to go up?" Eli asked. Jesse wasn't sure if he said it sardonically, or if he was just incredibly bored. He looked at the ladder to see for any dust, to see that there wasn't- wait, no, there was.

He frowned, confused, then looked closer. There was a gap in the step of the ladder that was completely free of dust. He held it, to see that the size of the gap almost fit his hand. His eyes widened as he let go and looked down at his hand.

' _Dangit, I got dust on it again._ '

"Non!"

He blinked, then twisted to look at Olivia, "Yeah?"

"What's going on?" She asked, her arms falling to her sides.

He shook his head, "Nothing." Then he looked back at the ladder, catching a glimpse of another gap. Except, it was at the opposite side of the first one he saw. He looked between the two of them, his frown getting deeper. They were evenly spaced, sure, but the gap wasn't that big. His brows furrowed. He held out both of his hands and-

"Move aside!"

Jesse was abruptly shoved to the side, causing him to stumble and fall to the dirt floor with an "Oof!" He glared up at Eli as the latter climbed up the ladder himself, effectively messing up what he was just investigating. He heard Olivia run up to him as he got up. He was on one knee when she got to him and helped him stand. "Are you alright?" She ask ed.

He nodded and removed his arm away from her. "I'm fine." He muttered, "Let's just go."

Olivia bit her lip and followed. "Guys!" Eli yelled from the surface, "Come here, you've gotta see this!"

The two exchanged glances. Jesse motioned towards the ladder, "After you?" Olivia shrugged, then walked forward and climbed the ladder. The boy followed after.

* * *

Today was the day when life decided to throw all the unexpected it could at Jesse, it seemed. First was waking up in the hut, the second was Olivia not knowing him, third was Lukas's murder, the fourth was all the Jesses, and the fifth on the list was what Jesse was seeing right now.

The first thing Jesse noticed was the extravagant mansion that stood before them. It was built from some polished material, and the lights of the torches and glowstones certainly helped make it quite the sight. But there wasn't only one mansion, no, there were two others. They stood to the right and left of the trio, both just as impressive as the one in the middle.

His awed gasp was completely warranted. "Do you think the person who brought us here built this?" He glanced at Olivia, who shrugged.

"Who else could it be?" He bit his lip, and looked back at all the mansions.

Eli heaved a heavy sigh and turned to Olivia and Jesse, "Let's just get moving. There's three of us, we can cover more ground if we split up. Non, you go through that mansion," he pointed at the mansion to his right, then pointed to the left, "Olivia, you check there. I'll investigate the center mansion." Jesse rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms. Eli didn't seem to notice. "We'll meet back here in thirty minutes. Deal?"

"Who put _you_ in charge?" Jesse blurted out. He almost regretted it, but when he saw Olivia's surprised face and Eli's infuriated glare, all regret flew out the window, replaced with a small feeling of accomplishment. Once again, green eyes glared into brown ones, but the latter, this time, had a glint of mischief in it.

There was a pregnant pause, and Olivia glanced between the two boys. She sighed and shook her head. "Look, it's a deal, alright?" She said, her hands slightly held up between them to keep something from happening, "We'll meet back here in thirty."

Jesse huffed. "Fine." He uncrossed his arms and slowly backed away. After a few moments, Eli did the same. Then he turned and brisk walked to the center mansion. The brunette shared a glance with Olivia, but it was brief, and the girl began her walk to her assigned mansion. Jesse turned away and walked slowly, choosing to take in the scenery of the garden as he walked.

All the paths going to each mansion were made of cobblestone, the edges covered in moss and lined with torches on both sides. He looked at the wall that was only a few feet away from where he was walking. The cobblestone walls seemed to be covered by not only moss, but vines too. Then he looked at the garden. Trees, flowers and torches were scattered all over the green spaces. ' _Whoever brought us here really cared about making the place look decent._ '

His walk to the mansion ended soon enough, and he found himself standing in front of the porch of a house.

Yes, house.

Whoever happened to build the place also went through the effort of glorifying the houses, making them seem like mansions from the garden. The house itself was large, there was no doubt about that, but it was also incredibly plain. It was more or less a large box made of iron.

Jesse chuckled. He wasn't exactly sure _why_ the builder went through all the trouble, but something was telling him that they did it just for kicks and giggles.

Putting that aside, he went through the dark oak door and entered the building.

* * *

The first room was a small walkway, small enough that it could potentially fit six people in it if they were all crammed inside. Separating the walkway from the room past the doorway, which looked like a living room, were two partitions. One in front of Jesse, and the other to his left, which made a doorway to the living room. Hanging from the front partition were two portraits: One was a portrait of a middle aged man in a blue shirt. The other was of a woman with ginger hair in a green shirt. Both of their eyes were crossed out.

Jesse's brows furrowed, then went even further when he saw the armor stand right by the entrance to the living room. It was an armor stand, and it was occupied.

The armor was light blue, some of its edges lined with white and yellow. The chest plate had a similar motif, a yellow stripe running diagonally through it, also lined with white. But it was also completely ruined. There were slits and holes all over it, most especially on the right side (or left, if you're looking from the point of view of the person who'd wear the armor). But that wasn't all- right where the largest slit was, was dry blood.

Jesse tilted his head as he stared at it. ' _Obviously, the person who owned this armor died wearing it._ ' He thought as walked closer to it, inspecting it. ' _The blood is completely dry, so it must've been a while since they've-_ '

He stopped, and his brows furrowed. ' _Did they die here?_ ' Jesse bit his lip and gave the armor a look before he backed away and into the living room. He filed his memory of the armor away for later, and went back to the matter at hand.

Luckily (or was it unfortunately?) for him, there was nothing bloodstained in the living room. The only furniture in the room were two couches, a book shelf, some potted plants, and an oak table with six chairs. The couch against the wall to his right had a long window above it. The curtains weren't drawn, but the light of a torch placed outside showed from beyond the glass a couple of chairs and a table, both made of quartz. From what he could see, beyond that was a small clearing and a whole bunch of trees. Then he looked past the torch, where he saw another dark oak door.

No doubt that that's where the door leads.

He turned around, to see wooden staircase leading to a second floor. The wall beyond it was filled with portraits. He blinked at it, curious, then walked up the stairs to get a better look at the paintings.

There were five of them, a single person in each portrait. Each of their eyes were crossed out. Just like the portraits back at the entrance.

Jesse looked at each portrait, each crossed out face, taking quick glances at the person in the portrait.

The first portrait was that of a boy (Jesse's assuming it's a boy) wearing a red vest over a white button up, an outfit Jesse would usually associate with Olivia. Beneath the portrait was a plaque, the name 'Oliver' written on it. The second portrait had another boy (still assuming), with bright orange hair and a striped kerchief on his head. The name in the plaque read 'Peter.' The third was of a blonde girl clad in a purple and white striped shirt under a black vest, with a cowboy hat sitting on her head. The plaque underneath read 'Lucy.'

Now the fourth portrait… that one took him by surprise.

The girl in the portrait had long, brown hair that disappeared beyond a familiar leather jacket. The green shirt underneath and smirk on her face were unmistakable. Jesse prepared for the worst when he looked down to check the name on the plaque.

'Ava.'

"Are you kidding?" He grumbled, hanging his head just as his hand slapped his forehead. ' _Why her? Why does she have a portrait, why is she here?_ ' Of course, she wasn't actually _here_ , but the fact that there was a picture of her in the place where he just so happened to find himself in was alarming.

But there was one more portrait that only added to Jesse's utter confusion about this whole scenario.

The person in the fifth portrait was Reuben.

* * *

 **A/N: It was so hard trying to come up with a way to describe stuff in this one smh**

 **i'm gonna hate writing the investigations**

 **Review replies!**

 **ArizaLuca - [Ah. I see xD]**

 **sailor . mikuchan - [Pfft xD This is a murder mystery, of course there's gonna be drama!] [This is why they have nicknames hahaha]**

 **Beli0304 - [The synopsis/summary explicitly said that "a certain blond winds up dead." Of course there's a murder.] [I'm good! :D] [And so you get more!]**

 **/insert the review thing here**

 **/laughs**

 **See you in three/four days. :3**

 **Have a good day!**


	6. early installment weirdness

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* * *

Questions piled up in Jesse's head as he stared at Reuben's portrait; half in confusion, half in awe. What did these portraits mean? Who were those first three people? Why did they have outfits and names similar to people he already knew? Who painted them?

His brows furrowed upon thinking the last question, and he immediately stepped closer to the paintings. He scanned every inch of each portrait looking for any name or symbol but, in the end, found none. Disappointed, he stepped away from the portraits. For a few moments, Jesse stood there, blankly staring at the portraits as the questions repeated in his head. Finally, he glanced to the side, where the rest of the stairs went. He sighed, ' _I can get back to this later._ '

Turning away from the portraits, the boy climbed the stairs to the second floor.

* * *

On the wall at the top of the stairs was a button, which was all Jesse could see of the second floor; the rest of it was shrouded in darkness. He looked at the button, braced himself, and pressed it. Instead of a bomb blowing up, which was what Jesse expected would happen, there was light. Redstone lamps lining the ceiling lit the room, allowing Jesse to see what was inside.

Tall bookshelves filled the room, making small hallways in between. Looking to the side, Jesse could see that the banister extended to the edge of the second floor, ending by a nook at the other side of the stairs. In the nook was a couch and a singular book case.

He blinked, then nodded, and walked to the nook to examine it more.

On top of the book case was a framed photo. Curious, he picked it up and looked closer. In the photo were five wooden blocks. Carved on the blocks were, when Jesse took a moment to look at it, letters written in reverse. The letters carved into the blocks were, in order, 'e,' 'lf,' 'f,' 'u,' and 'hs.'

"'Shuffle.'" He read aloud. His brows furrowed, "Shuffle what?"

The boy flipped the frame around to see for anything else, but found nothing. Frowning, he put the photo back on the table/bookcase and crouched to look at the books inside. To his surprise, the bookcase was more or less empty; there were at least ten books inside, and they were all very colorful. There were two green notebooks, three red, four were brown, and one blue.

He blinked. ' _Only_ one _blue book?_ '

He took out the book and examined it, making a face when he smelled it. Once again, something had a mix of smells coming from it. Except this time, there wasn't any blood. "Logic might be right on the potion theory…" He mumbled. The book itself was slightly crumpled, as if it had been doused in liquid. ' _Pages included,_ ' he thought as he looked at the pages of the book. They were all wavy, different colors staining them. He opened the book to the first page. It was slightly wavy, but also stiff. ' _Just like how paper is after it…_ '

His eyes widened when he saw the words on the page.

' _..Is that my handwriting?_ '

It was. Eyes wide, he looked at the top of the page to read what the page said.

[ _Entry 1 - WITHERSTORM_

 _Everything is horrible. Do you know why? Because the world is being torn apart by a big monster. That's why._

 _Let me start from the beginning._

 _So today was the Building Competition, right? For the first time in nine years, we finally won against the Ocelots! We built an Enderman on top of the fireworks, and it worked! Fantastic, right?_ ]

Jesse's brow furrowed. ' _Fireworks?_ '

[ _Not so much. Aiden-_ ] ' _Who's Aiden?_ ' [ _-got mad (typical Aiden) and punched a block that was keeping some lava from overflowing, and it got to Reuben. His costume on fire, he ran for the woods. I had to go and save him myself while Olivia and Axel saved the build from being sabotaged._ ]

"Okay, wait," Jesse's eyes screwed shut. "This doesn't make any sense- _this whole thing_ doesn't make any sense.

Ever since the night began, things were _weird_ , but right now, the most prominent weird thing was the mention of Reuben, Axel, and Olivia. A hand went up to his chin as he began to think.

' _Is is possible that everyone here... is from a different world? No, a different universe?'_ He bit his lip, _'I mean, think about it._ _Olivia didn't recognize me when this all started, and she always said 'my Jesse,' meaning she knew someone else who was named Jesse and had my voice. When we got to the clearing and met everyone else, she was always with Logic. Both of them share a tattoo._ ' He frowned, the events from before playing again in his head as his thoughts drifted to them, ' _When Axel and Red got to the clearing, he yelled out my name. Thief, Justice and I then turned to him when he said that, but he only talked to Thief. Justice already knew who Lukas was, and I already know who most of them are, and the same can be said about Eli and Logic...'_

He looked down at the journal in his hands. ' _And then there's this thing. It's my handwriting, but what's written on the first page never happened to me._ _But, there are five other people who share the same name as me. Two of them have my voice. The other three... Oh my god._ '

Jesse's eyes widened.

' _They're me_.'

* * *

Rationally speaking, he knows he's only been standing there for a minute, but if he were to speak from his feelings, it felt like no time at all had passed. It was as if the entire world just stopped doing its thing for a bit to let the whole situation sink in.

Jesse blinked, his mouth opening and closing like a lost fish. Finally, he stopped, tucked the book in his inventory, and heaved a sigh. ' _I should stop thinking._ '

And so, without another word, Jesse continued investigating the library.

* * *

Unlike the one bookcase in the nook, the shelves here were absolutely _filled_. There wasn't any space for anything, save for some space at the top of each shelf for a hand to fit and take out a book, but that was it.

It almost looked like the shelves would explode.

While stifling a laugh at the thought, Jesse tilted his head to read the book titles. _Basic Portal Theory_ , _Legend of the World Portals_ , _Inter-dimensional Traveling 101_... The theme continued on from there. Jesse frowned, then checked the shelves above and below the one he was looking at to see that it was the same there. Time travel, other universes, portals to other worlds... it just went on.

Brows furrowed, Jesse headed to another aisle - catching a brief glimpse of another room from his peripheral as he did so - to check if it was the same there. Seeing the other shelf, he stepped closer and looked at the titles. _The Unicorn and the Wasp_ , _Trials and Tribulations_ , _Bullet Rebuttal_ , and others with similar titles filled the shelves. "Doesn't seem like the same genre.." He mumbled, then went to the next aisle to make sure. Just as he thought, the titles of the books there didn't match either of the previous two. ' _Each aisle must be categorized, then._ '

He hummed, his mind going back to the book case at the nook. ' _Which must mean that all of those books are journals._ ' Taking note of this information, he stepped away from the shelves and turned to look at the room that he passed by earlier.

It was a reading room, probably twice as big as the tree house. Its ceiling was just as tall as the rest of the library, with redstone lamps placed in each corner of the ceiling. On each side of the room, save for the one connecting to the library, was a long case filled with books; above it, an enormous window. In the room were four small tables, a single, unlit torch on each one. Beside each table were two elegant chairs, all of them green and gold.

Jesse raised a brow at the almost lavish appearance, but said nothing. He walked into the room, avoiding the chairs and tables and to the window of the wall in front of him.

If it weren't for the redstone lamps in the room, Jesse wouldn't have been able to see anything outside. Not that he's seeing a whole lot, but with the light, it looked like there were trees outside. A whole bunch. Jesse turned to the side to look through the other window, to see that not far ahead was the garden, just as dimly-lit as earlier.

Finding nothing new, Jesse leaves the library and heads downstairs, giving the portraits a brief glance as he passed by them.

* * *

Jesse investigated the living room a little more, but found nothing.

Now, finished with his investigation, he stepped away from the 'dining table' and went to leave, when he saw something in his peripheral. He turned, and almost jumped in surprise.

Outside the window, standing by the table and chairs, was a man.

A man with glowing, white eyes.

Both of them stood absolutely still. Jesse stared at the man, and the man did the same, and as that happened a familiar feeling overtook Jesse.

What was the man going to do? Was he gonna attack him? _Kill him?!_

Slightly panicked, he quickly glanced to the door, thoughts of making a run for it forming in his head. But then, realizing that he wasn't looking at the man, he turned back at the window.

Only to see that the man disappeared.

This was Jesse's cue to leave. Without complaint, the boy wasted no time in running to the door and getting out.

* * *

Strangely, Jesse didn't feel very scared. Sure, he was surprised and nervous, but looking back.. it was as if he knew that the man wouldn't hurt him. Why this was the case, though, Jesse couldn't say. ' _Besides,_ ' he rationalized, ' _If he really wanted to kill me, he'd have done it when I wasn't looking. He_ did _disappear in the blink of an eye, so it'd be possible._ '

He frowned as he rolled down the sleeves of his shirt. Now that he had time to think, that familiar feeling back when the man was looking at him.. it might have been the same thing he felt back at home, before he blacked out.

Was he the person responsible for this?

He shook his head. ' _Better question is: Do I tell the others?_ '

"Non!" He heard Olivia say, the sound of her footsteps accompanying her. He turned around to greet her.

"Hey, Liv. You're done too?"

She nodded. "Now we just have to wait for-"

 _SLAM!_

They both jumped in surprise upon hearing the sound of a door being slammed shut. They turned to the mansion Eli was investigating, to see him walking away from the door and towards them. "The timer hadn't even run out yet, but we're all here." He noted. Jesse shrugged.

"There really wasn't much to investigate, so.."

"One question," Olivia held up a finger, "Did you find a mansion or a really big house?"

"The latter." "Really big house."

Eli gave Jesse a weird look, to which Jesse responded with a shrug. The taller boy huffed, then turned to Olivia. "So what did you find?"

"A gallery, with eight paintings in it. I.. recognized some of them." She looked between the two boys, "We were in them. All of us."

"Sorry, wait," Jesse held up a hand, "You had paintings too?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but that was all. The only things on the second floor were two bedrooms and a storage room."

' _Bedrooms?_ '

"You too?" She asked Jesse.

"Yep." He said, popping the 'p,' "There were fi- seven.. of them, but only five had names. Did yours have names too?"

"They were in plaques, yeah."

Eli uncrossed his arms. "What did they say?"

Olivia's brows furrowed as she tried to remember, "Uhm.. There was _The Order of the Stone_ -" Jesse raised a brow, "- _Assembly Required_ , _The Last Place You Look, A Block and A Hard Place_... _A Journey's End_ , _The Portal to Mystery_ , _Access Denied_ , and... _Order Up_." Then she turned to Jesse, "And yours?"

"Yeah, they weren't really titles so much as they were names." He looked between Olivia and Eli, "Tell me if any of these ring any bells?"

The other two motioned for him to continue. He did.

"In order, there was _Oliver_ , _Peter_ -" He saw Olivia's eyes widen when he said this, "- _Lucy_ , _Ava_..." He looked at Eli, "And _Reuben_."

The green-eyed boy frowned. Olivia spoke up, "Wait, the one titled 'Peter'- did he happen to have orange hair and a striped kerchief?" She pursed her lips, "Did he look like Petra?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

She nodded, "He's a friend."

Jesse turned to Eli. "Did you recognize any?"

He took a moment to answer. "Yes.. and no. See, my mansion had portraits too."

"Who were in the paintings?"

"Get ready." He huffed, then held up a hand and counted with his fingers, "Lukas, Olivia, Petra, Axel, Ivor, Harper, Maya, Aiden and Gill."

At this, Jesse raised both hands in a surrender and said loudly, "Great! Everyone has portraits!"

"But who's Harper?" Olivia asked, "Everyone else is obvious, but who's she?"

"On that note," Jesse said, lowering his arms, "Who's Ivor?"

Both Eli and Olivia gave him weird looks. He did the same. "What?"

Eli glanced between the trapdoor and the mansion, then said, "You know what, Non-" He pointed at the mansion he came from, "You go and wait in the main room while Olivia and I get the others. We'll meet back there."

"What, you're just gonna leave me alone, in the middle of a murder mystery?" Jesse asked, breathing a laugh. "Oh yes, great idea." This got him a glare from the boy, which made Jesse sigh. "Fine! Whatever." He turned away and began to walk the dimly lit path to the mansion, "You guys take care, and stuff."

"See you later, Non." He heard Olivia say, but he didn't respond. He simply pushed the doors to the mansion open, walked through the small, dark porch, and went inside.

* * *

What greeted him was a room larger than the library itself. The ceiling was just as tall, with a chandelier hanging from the center of it. The space was almost completely empty, if not for all the couches and chairs that were set almost directly beneath the chandelier. They were formed in a circle; in the middle was a coffee table, which was on a carpet. The walls were made of polished andesite, the floor of dark oak wood. To Jesse's left was another room, although what was beyond its doors, Jesse didn't bother thinking. There was a set of double doors several feet away from where he was standing, leading to either another part of the house, or the outside.

But what was hanging from the wall where the door was concerned Jesse more.

It was the portraits Eli was talking about. Three of them, at least. There was space for four, but the spot where the first portrait might have been was empty. Instead, it was replaced with graffiti; a drawing of a key and the word ' _ORDER_.' Below the graffiti was a plaque with Lukas's name on it.

' _Eli didn't mention this._ ' He thought, his eyes narrowing. Then he looked at the other three portraits, recognizing the subjects immediately. Right next to where Lukas's portrait would have been was Olivia, followed by Petra and Axel. At the next wall were two other portraits, the first of a bearded man in green, and the second of a white haired woman in brown. The names in the plaques were 'Ivor' and 'Harper' respectively. Just like all the other portraits Jesse found, their eyes were crossed out.

' _That doesn't explain where the last three portraits are, though._ ' He looked around, confirming that no other paintings hung from the walls. Then he turned to the doors. ' _Unless..._ '

He walked forward and through the double doors, to see that yes, it _did_ lead to another part of the house. He found himself walking into a hall. Directly across was another set of double doors. Jesse blinked, then looked around. To his left the hall extended, then turned right, disappearing past the wall of the room in front. It was the same for his right, except it went left. No portraits there, but when Jesse turned to look at the wall behind him, he found them.

The last three portraits: Maya, Aiden, and Gill, all of their eyes crossed out. Then Jesse went back to looking at Aiden's portrait. He looked almost exactly like Ava.

He shuddered, then looked at something else. Specifically, what was below Aiden's portrait and above the double doors.

It was a clock that read ' _May 20,_ _Δ50 - 11:38 PM_ '

Jesse's eyes widened in surprise, "Delta 50? That's..." His eyes screwed shut, then they opened and narrowed at the clock. "You're telling me I've been sent _8 years into the future?_ "

Of course, nobody responded.

He blew a raspberry, then re-entered the main room. He walked on to the nearest couch and sat on it, childishly crossing his arms in the process. Eli told him to wait, so wait he will.

...But what was he supposed to feel about this? About the whole situation?

He was having a relatively normal, albeit boring, day when he blacked out. Then he woke up in a weird hut, and Olivia didn't even recognize him. And then they find Lukas dead, and then a bunch of other people come along, most of them who could potentially be other versions of himself.. And then he finds a bloody suit of armor, a bunch of weird portraits, a journal belonging to someone else with his handwriting...

A normal person would've probably broken down or wanted to walk out at this point.

But all Jesse felt right now was simple bemusement. He didn't particularly care, he realizes. He didn't care that Lukas was dead, that Red was grieving, that he was stuck in the middle of nowhere 8 years in the future. In fact, he'd forgotten about the first two. Hell, he'd even forgotten that Reuben was here too.

Jesse looked at the tattoo on his arm, reading the word and studying the details.

Nonchalance.

With an amused snort, Jesse crossed his arms again and waited for the others to come around.

* * *

Ten minutes ago, when he 'waited for the others to come around,' he didn't think it would mean 'Justice suddenly pushing the doors open.' He stood up just as she asked frantically, "Have you seen Red?!"

He shook his head. "No, why?"

"She disappeared." Thief said, with a 'so done' look on her face. Olivia, Logic and Reuben followed in after the other two girls. To his surprise, no one else was there.

" _Are you serious?_ "

"Oh- n-no, no we're not." Justice said sarcastically. She gave him a glare as she leaned on one of the couches, "W-We're just kidding."

He raised a brow, while Thief gave her a weird look. The Logic pair didn't react, instead closing the door behind them. Thief plopped down on the couch next to where Justice was leaning, took one of the pillows and hugged it like a stuffed toy. Reuben brisk walked to Jesse and sat beside him. "Axel and Petra are looking for her as we speak."

"And Eli?"

"He's watching Lukas and figuring out what to do with him."

Justice breathed a laugh, "I-Instead of, y-you know, _burying him_. Y-Yeah, paying the dead _any_ r-respect _totally_ isn't a-an option, o-or anything."

Thief frowned. "I thought 'paying respect to the dead' meant going to their funeral?"

This apparently sparked an argument between the two, which made Jesse roll his eyes and turn his attention to Reuben. The boy was staring blankly at the carpet as he hugged a pillow. His expression was unreadable.

Jesse's brows furrowed, and he poked the younger boy in the shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

He lowered his head, his shoulders shaking just a bit. Then he wiped his eyes and heaved a sigh. "I'm fine."

Jesse tilted his head as he looked at Reuben curiously, then he huffed and looked away. "Suit yourself."

Reuben's glare towards him went unnoticed.

It would take another ten minutes before the others came back, and when they did, they had even more news.

"The body is gone!"

* * *

 **A/N: hhhhnnnn this feels rushed  
**

 **technically it's day five for me so :I sorryyy ;;-;;**

 **Review Replies!**

 **Jack638 - [Yay! :D] [I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing xD]**

 **BeliTheGhoti0304 - [Sorry about your head D:]**

 **sailor . mikuchan - [wHY NOT]**

 **not sure if I should respond to reviews from older chapters. hm.**

 **Anyway, uh, three things. First, do you know the game Ace Attorney?**

 **Second, the group's/Jesse's gonna find more paintings in the mansions. Now I kinda figured 'what if I reference other MCSM fics in those paintings?' Because originally they were just gonna be a bunch of inconsequential paintings, but uh.. yknow, why not? It wouldn't really change much in the overall plot, but I thought it'd be fun. So... Should I reference other fics? If your answer's yes, what fics do you think I should reference? Of course, _if_ the majority answer ends up being 'yes,' I'll ask the authors, but uh.. yeah. Should I, or should I not?  
**

 **Third. The descriptions for some of the places are wonky, I know. Question is, do you wanna see drawings of what they look like? 'Cause I can post them on my dA, if you want. :0 And speaking of dA, I'll be uploading a pictured version of Jesse's reaction to realizing that the other Jesses are versions of him. It'll be better than the description here, I swear xD**

 **Anyway, uh.. that's it. I think.**

 **Tell me what you think, and have a good one :D**

 **See you in three/four days :3**


	7. meet up in the main room

**A/N: that rare author's note at the beginning of a chapter. ._. Anyway, posting this one early 'cause there's a kind of important question at the end that i need answered. Anyway- on to the chapter!**

* * *

Axel came barging into the main room, causing nearly everyone inside to jump. "The body is gone! The body is gone!" He screamed in obvious panic. Petra was beside him, her face scrunched up and a hand near her ear. Jesse and Reuben exchanged glances before they both got up and joined the group.

"Axel! Please! Calm down!"

Olivia stood from the couch she was sitting on. "What do you mean 'the body is gone?'"

Thief twisted to give Olivia a look, "I don't know, maybe he means it's _gone_?" The engineer gave her a glare as Petra began to explain.

"Axel and I were going through the maze when we heard Eli yell." She said, "When we got there, he was knocked out and Lukas was gone."

"All that was left were these capes and his sword." Axel took out said pieces of evidence as he said this. Logic walked closer and had a little chat with the boy.

Justice, meanwhile, spoke up. "Th-then that must mean s-someone else is h-here with us…"

"No sh*t, Sherlock." Thief mumbled, apparently a little too loudly as Justice gave her a glare, the Logic pair exchanged an exasperated look, and Reuben sighed.

' _And I might just know who…_ ' Jesse added silently.

Olivia raised a hand, "Okay, but why would they take his body? Anything remotely valuable he had on him is in Jes- Logic's inventory."

The ravenette beside her shrugged. " _Who cares?_ "

"We do." "Shut up, Thief." Logic and Justice said simultaneously. The former was rummaging through his inventory, the latter was scowling at Thief. Jesse hid a snicker as said kleptomaniac huffed and childishly crossed her arms.

Suddenly, one of the boys swore, and everyone's heads turned to Logic. "What is it?"

"It's gone!"

"What's gone?"

"Lukas's- his necklace! It's- It's gone!"

A number of them turned to look at either Thief or Axel accusingly. Thief held her hands in a surrender, "I didn't take it! Seriously, Justice has been watching me like a hawk, I don't have any necklace!"

Justice nodded. "She's right. Unfortunately."

Eli appeared from behind Axel and immediately checked his inventory, to see that yes, he didn't have it either. "So what now?" Reuben asked.

"Now," The mocha-haired boy began, "we're gonna have to think of our next move."

"Namely what to do with Thief, how we're gonna look for Redemption-"

Justice continued for Petra, "-and what to do now that Lukas is gone too." Olivia nodded.

"We're gonna have to look around more."

"Oh!" Thief jumped in her place excitedly, "Maybe this place's got secret passages, like the White Pumpkin's!"

Petra raised a brow. Jesse had a similar reaction. "The who now?"

"The White Pumpkin..?" She gave Petra an odd look, "You know, the lady serial killer in that two moon world? The one who was crazy for this enchanted flint and steel?"

Logic stood straighter upon hearing this, and Eli's eyes narrowed. "Come on, don't tell me you can't recognize her just by that?"

The boy in blue shook his head, "No, we do."

"Well, I don't!" Justice said. Jesse interjected with a 'Same here.' "Who is she?"

Thief was about to give another snide remark when Logic interrupted her. "I'd say this is the part where we catch up on each other's timelines."

"Timelines?" The clock came back to Jesse's mind.

He nodded. "It's already obvious that we're all from different universes, we should at least know at what point in time we came from."

"So, what," Petra shrugged, "you're saying we should recount our adventures?"

"I have a better idea!" Jesse said loudly, bringing everyone's attention to him. Reuben jumped at his sudden yelling, "What was the date before you woke up here?"

They all shared looks for a moment, before Petra responded. "December 17, Δ42."

Axel's brow furrowed. "Two months ago?"

Thief's had a similar reaction. "It was like… Feb Δ43 when I blacked out."

"Do you know the specific date?" Olivia asked, "Because it was February 10, Δ43 for me."

"Same here." Said Logic. He turned to Jesse, "Non?"

Jesse frowned. "May 19, Δ42." He ignored the shocked looks everyone gave him and looked over at Eli. "What about you?"

The taller boy took in a deep breath, then, "...August 15, Δ52."

Petra's eyes widened. " _What?_ "

Jesse's eyes narrowed, and he held his chin in thought. ' _Justice and Petra came from December of 42; Thief, Axel, Logic and Olivia from February of 43; Eli from 52, and Reuben and I from May of 42. A full_ ten years _before Eli._ ' He looked at each of them as they speculated on when Red could have come from, ' _That confirms that we're all from different points in time.. which would explain the journal, right? So it's just a matter of who owns it.._ '

"J- Non?"

He blinked, then looked up, to see that Eli was looking at him from across their little circle. Silence began to take the group over as all attention slowly went to him. "Do you have something you'd like to say?"

"Uh.." He pursed his lips, nervous and surprised at the sudden attention. Then he nodded. "Yeah, actually. This."

He sifted through his inventory and took out the blue journal. "I found it in the li-" Thief cut him off when she snatched it from his hands and began to flip through the pages. Her eyes widened as she scanned each page.

"Holy crap," She exclaimed, "this is my handwriting!"

"We share a handwriting?" He muttered in a deadpan tone. She heard, and looked at him with a raised brow. "What are you talking about?"

"Wait, what's in the book?" Axel asked, "Come on guys, don't leave us in the dark."

She looked up, then back down at the journal and flipped back to the first few pages. "It's just a stupid journal, but…" She arrived at the first page, and read each title aloud as she flipped each page, " _Witherstorm, Reuniting the Order, Finding Soren, Destroying the Storm…_ " She looked back up at everyone else, "This is how we became the order!"

Jesse's brows furrowed. ' _What?_ '

"And not just that," Added Olivia, who was peering at the journal from over the girl's shoulder, "There's more. _Green Eyed Prick, Murder Mystery, Evil Computer,_ and _The Old Builders_."

After counting the titles with his fingers, Reuben frowned. "Wait, th-that's it? Only eight chapters?"

Thief nodded. "Yeah. After that, it's all just some mumbo jum…" She paused, then squinted at the page.

' _What now?_ '

The girl's eyes widened. "The date on this page says… _October 21,_ _Δ45._ "

Logic turned to Eli and opened his mouth to ask something, but the older one cut him off. "I don't have a journal." He said, his arms crossed. "That has to be Red's."

"How would you kn-know?" Justice asked, looking at him as if he'd done something suspicious. Meanwhile, Jesse took the journal back from Thief, who was reading through it herself. She stuck her tongue at him, a gesture he returned with a glare.

"None of you said anything about it being yours," Eli reasoned, "and if it's got a handwriting more than one person in this room shares, that means it has to be one of y- ours. Ergo, it's Red's."

Jesse raised a brow at his slip up, but said nothing. "Hey, Non." He turned to Petra.

"Yeah?"

"How much of that journal did you read?" She asked. Her brows were furrowed, but her eyes were… somewhat soft? Was she _concerned_?

He shrugged. "Just the first few paragraphs of the first entry, that's all. Why?"

Thief had the same thought. "Yeah, wh- oh."

Everyone else seemed to share the sentiment, save for Jesse and Reuben. "Why? What's wrong?" Reuben asked. Justice bit her lip and began to play with her hair, Logic glanced to the side, and Thief was doing her 'lost fish' thing. Axel, Petra, and Olivia had similar reactions. Eli's eyes simply hardened.

"Keep looking through that journal, Non." He said simply.

Everyone else suddenly became more distressed, with Justice exclaiming, "Are you for real?!"

"There could be evidence in that journal."

"Y-yeah, b-b-but-"

"Dude," Thief slammed the backside of the couch like a desk, "we might as well just tell him already."

Jesse looked between Thief and Justice, confusion and frustration rising. "Tell me _what_?"

The green-eyed girl turned to him, "Reu-"

A pillow to her face coupled with Justice yelling "Shut up!" cut her off. As she fell to the floor behind her, Justice said, a little quieter this time, "Th-that's enough o-out of you!"

Axel jumped in surprise, whilst Olivia's eyes widened. Petra gave a surprised yelp. "Jesse!"

The other girl gave a soft apology.

"Look," Eli said, "it's late, and sleep deprivation won't do us any good. Let's think about our next move tomorrow, alright?"

"Wh-what about Th-Thief?" Justice stammered, "W-We can't j-just let her-"

Said girl groaned. "Are you kidding me, Justice?" She asked, glaring at the stripe-clad girl as she got up, "You've been on my case this whole night, could you leave me alone?!"

"Well-"

" _ **If it shuts both of you up**_ ," Eli said, his voice raising with every word, "we can lock her up for the night while some of us stay up for night watch." He looked between the two girls, both of whom were glaring daggers at each other. " _ **Is that a deal?**_ "

There was a moment of silence, Petra mumbling something Jesse couldn't hear, then, "Fine."

* * *

..- - -. / -.-. .- .- / -.. ...- -.-. .- ..-.. .-.-.. .. .. -. / .- -..- - .. -... / -.-. .. ...- ...- / .-.. .-. / -..- .- -.. .. -. .-. ..-. / .. ... .-. -.- / - ..- - - ..-. / .- ...- .- / -... .. - -. .-.. .-. .-.-.- / -. -.-. ... / -... .-. .-. .- -..- / ..-. .- -..- / ...- ... .- / .-. .. -.. ...- . / .-.. .- - -... / ..-. -.- .. / .- ... -..- ... / ... - .- .. -.. . / -.. ..-. .- .- - / - .. -..- .-. .- .-. ...- / .- -. ... .. -.- -.- ...- ..-. -.- ...- / ..-. -.- .- - -.. .- -... .. ..-.. / -.-. ... . - -..- / .. .- .. ... / .- ...- .- / -... .. - -. .-.. .-. .-.-.- .-.-.. -... ...- .-. / -.. ... ..- .-. ..- -.-. -.. / .- - / .- .-. .-. -..- . -.. -. / ...- -..- / .-.. .-. ... / -.- ..-. .- .- / .-.. -.- -. / ..- - .. .-. / .- ... -..- ...- -.. .-. . .-.-.- / .- ...- .-. / - ... -..- .-. .-. -.-. .-. - / -. .- .- ..- / - .- / . -.. -. .-. .-. ... . ...- .-.-.- .-.-.. . -.- ... / ..-. .- -..- ...- / ... ..- ...- / .-. .-.. -.- - .. / .-.. .-. ... / -. . ... / - -.- .- .-. .-.. / . ... . ...- / -..- -.. - -.- -.-. / - . - .-.. -..- / .- .-.. ... / .-.. -.- .-. -.- .-.. / - / .-. ..-. -.- .-. ... ..-. -..- ... ...- / -.-. ... -.- / - -.- / -..- - - / .- .. -.. -.- .-.-.- / -.-. -.- -. . . / .-.. - .- -... .-. -. / .-. .-. -... .- - - -.- - / .- .- / -.- .-.. ... / ...- .- -.. ..-. .-.-.- .-.-.. .- -.-. -..- / .-. ... -.- .-.. - -... - .- / . .- -. -.- / .-.. ... ...- / . -..- -.. ...- - -. .-.. ...- ... / .- - -.. - - -.. -..- / ..-. -.- .. / - ... .- -.. -..- .-.. / -.-. ... -.- / -..- -.- .. / .-. -.. ... -.. / ... -... / .- .. ... / .- - .-. - / . - ..-. / -..- ... .-.. .-. ... / -.. -. .-.-.- .-.-.. .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- ...- -.-. -. -.- - -.- -.- .-.-.- .-.-.. . .- -..- / .- ... .-. -. - ... ... / .- .- - .- .- -.- ...- / -..- .-. / .-. .- -.. -.. / -. -.-. . / -.-. -.- -. . . -..- / -.- -. -... / .-. .-. .- ... ..- .. / . .- -..- / -.- -.-. ... -.-. ... / .- . .- - / - ...- -.-. -. -.- .. ..- / .- ..-. - .. -..- / .- ...- .-. / ... .-. -.. -. .- - .- / .- .. -. .-.-.- .-.-.. -.- .-.. -.. -..- / .. .-. .-.. / -... ...- .-. / -.-. . ...- -..- / -.. -..- -.. .-. ... / -. -.- .. / ... . ..- -. / .-.. -..- ... .- -.- / - -.- / -..- - - / - - .- -.-. -.-. .. / . .. .-. -.. -.- - / ... ..- ...- - ..- / ... -.- .-. - .-. .-.-.- .-.-.. .-.-.. ...- .-. -.-. .-. .-. / . ... .-. -... ...- -..- / ..-. .-. .-. ... ... ...- .-.-.- / ..- ..- / .-. .- .. / -.- ...- -. .-.. - - - -.- - .-. / -. -.- - ...- -..- / -.- .- -.. .- / -. -.-. . / .-. ... -..- -. .-.-.. .-.-.. .- - -... -..- / -.. .. -.- ...- .- / -.. .- / ..-. .- -..- / - - ..-. -.- / -..- .-.. -.- -.- -... / ... ... ...- .-. ... / -. ...- .-. - / . -.. -. ... ...- ... / .- -.- ... / -.- . . -.-. .-. - / .-.. ... .-. ..-. ... ... ... / ..-. .- -..- / ..- ... ..-. .- . .- .. / - -.- ... -.-. ... / -. -.- - ...- -. / - ..-. .-. .- . / .- ... / -... .-.. ...- / - - ..-. .. . - / -. .-. - ...- ... -..- .-.-.- / .- .- -..- / - ...- .-. / -.. .-. .- .-. .-. .-. . .-.-.- .-.-.. ... .. - - -..- -.. .-. .- / ... .-. / -... - .- -.-. .- -..- / .- .. -.- ... / - -..- ..-. / .. / .- .-. .- .- -.. -.- -.- / ..- ... -.. / .- .-. -..- / -. - - .-. / -.- -.. -. ..-.. / -... ... -.- -.-. / .-.. .-.. -.- / .-. ... .-. . .. .- -. . -..- / .-.. .- / -.. - - -.. .-.-.- .-. / .- .- / .-. / ...- ... -.. ..- - .-. / .- ..-. / -. / -. ...- .-.. -.. - .. -..- / ..- ... ..-. .- . .- .. -..- / .-. -.. -..- .- -... .-. -. / -.. . .- -..- -.- -. .-.-.- / - .- / -.. -... . -.- / -.. .- / -.- -.. -. / - ... -. / -.- .-.. ... / -.- -.- ... .-.. .. ..- .-. / -.- ... / -.- - -.- -..- / -..- - .-. .- / - ...- . .. / . -.-. / -.- - .-.-.- .-.-.. .-.-.. -.-. -.. - -. .-. - / .- - .-. .-. -.- -..- / -.- - ..- / -.. . -.-. .-. -.- .-. - . -.. / .. - .-.-.- / - ... . / ..-. .. .-. ... - / .-.. .- -.- . .-. -..- / .- - / .-.. . .- ... - .-.-.- -.-.- .-.-.. -.-. -.. - -. .-. - / - .. -. -.. / - . -..- / .- ..- ... - / ..-. - -.-. ..- ... / - -. / - ... . / - . -..- - / - ... .- - / .. ... -. .-. - / .. -. / .-. .-.. .- .. -. / . -. -. .-.. .. ... ... .-.-.- -.-.- .-.-.. -.-. -. - - -.. / .-.. ..- -.-. -.- -. -. -.-.- .-.-.. -...- / - .- ... - -.

* * *

After a while, the group came to an agreement. Every night, they'd have three people up as nightwatch. Two will scout the whole area, and one will watch Thief (who will be locked up in a makeshift prison, much to her chagrin). So for tonight, Justice and Eli would scout the area while Jesse watched Thief. Everyone else stayed in the bedrooms in either the right mansion or the middle one (bedrooms that Eli had failed to mention the first time).

Jesse leaned against the wall of Thief's makeshift cell. It was made of some obsidian blocks Logic apparently found in his hut. The cell itself wasn't very big; the space inside was just enough for her to curl up in a ball and sleep. A single window with iron bars served as her only other connection to 'the outside world.'

He didn't know if it was overkill or not.

It might be the former.

He slid down and sat on the ground, then took the journal out of his pocket. When he looked at the blue leather, the scuffle from earlier came back to his mind. He frowned. "Hey Thief?" He heard some shuffling from behind the obsidian walls, then the sound of something grabbing metal. Looking up, he saw that Thief had grabbed the iron bars.

"What's up?"

"Why didn't Justice want me to read the journal?"

"Nng…" She clicked her tongue, "Sorry, can't tell you."

His frown got deeper. "Why not?"

"I'm a woman of my word, Non."

This made him laugh. "As if!"

"Read it for yourself!" She said with a chuckle. "You'll get to it, eventually."

With that, she went back to whatever she was doing, leaving Jesse more or less alone with the journal. The remnants of his laughter faded, and he looked back at the book. He shrugged, then flipped to the first page. Finding where he left off, he continued reading.

[ _A short while after finding Reuben, we got attacked by a bunch of mobs. I told Reuben to run, and shortly after that, I got attacked by a spider. I was able to hold them off a bit, but I got attacked again, and Petra came to my rescue (thank goodness)._ ] "Convenient." Jesse muttered.

[ _On our way back to town to look for Reuben, she showed me something. It was a wither skull! In the span of a whole day, I built a super cool structure, won a contest-_ ] His eyes narrowed. "Wait."

He went back to the previous paragraphs, then to the one he was currently reading. "You were still looking for Reuben, how did you know you won the contest?"

Was it her ego talking? He frowned. ' _Then again, it did say at the beginning that 'the world was being torn apart by a monster,' so she must have written this after knowing the results of the competition._ '

Jesse paused, then reread the suspicious paragraph. Tucking the memory of it away, he continued reading. [ _…I built a super cool structure, won a contest, and had to go look for Reuben in the woods, but her? She went to the Nether and faced a wither skeleton! It's incredible! But why did she get it in the first place? I mean, it's just a dusty old skull, right?_ ]

"Yes."

[ _Nope._ ]

"Oh."

[ _Turns out she had a deal with this shady guy who promised to give her a diamond in return for a wither skull. She offered for me to come with her. I couldn't refuse!_

 _But the guy cheated us out on the deal, and left lapis instead. Lapis! In exchange for a wither skull?! We chased the guy down to the Keynote at Endercon (oh, and we found Reuben)-_ ] Jesse cracked up, [ _-with Olivia, Axel and Lukas tagging along. And what did we find, you might ask?_

 _The recipe for a wither. But not quite. There was some strange block in the middle. It was some sort of..pulsing..machine. It was so...fascinating.. It felt like it was calling out to me…_ ] His brows furrowed when he read this, but he continued on.

[ _But we'll get to that later. The shady guy, Ivor-_ ] Jesse frowned. The name sounded familiar, but…

' _Wasn't that the word I heard Logic and Olivia say earlier?_ '

Confused, he continued reading. [ _-his name was apparently, found us, and we had to make a run for it. We tried to warn Gabriel, but we were too late. Ivor unleashed the wither on the convention, and it sucked everything away. Even the people. We had to run._ ]

Jesse's reading was interrupted by the sound of metal hitting rock. He closed the book shut and glanced up, as if he were talking to Thief face to face. "What are you doing?"

"Breaking out!" She said, the metal-on-rock sound following her response. "What's it look like?"

His eyes narrowed. All of her inventory was taken by Justice, so.. "With what?!"

Another swing of Thief's 'weapon.' "Your hoe."

"WHAT?!"

He quickly got up and looked through the window to see that yes, Thief _was_ trying to break out. His enchanted diamond hoe was in her hands, and he caught her mid-swing. Her expression reflected that of a deer caught in the headlights (not that they know what headlights are, but you get it).

"When did you get that?!"

"I'm not telling you!"

" _THIEF._ "

She huffed, and stopped her escape attempt, handing him the hoe through the barred window. "Fine.." she said, prolonging the 'i' like a child.

With a huff, Jesse took the hoe and kept it in his inventory. He and Thief had a little glaring contest for a few moments, until the girl put an end to it by sticking her tongue out at him and turning away with a 'hmph!' Jesse sighed, then sat back down and resumed his reading.

[ _Gabriel told us to go to his temple, where he said it would be 'safe' (it wasn't). But it eventually was only us and him left. He gave me this amulet and told me to find the rest of the Order. Me, find them? But he trusted me with it, so I had to go._

 _Everyone escaped into a Nether portal, where Gabriel said we should all be safe. I was about to go too, but something happened._

 _Gabriel got caught in a tractor beam. Petra and I tried to save him, but she got caught too. Lukas was too frozen in fear to help, so it was up to me. I saved Petra, thankfully, but Gabriel was too far away for us to reach. Then Petra insisted on her staying behind to fight whatever she can. Before I could do anything about it, I was knocked into the portal by one of the Wither Storm's tentacles._

 _In the Nether, we found minecarts, which turned out to lead to the Order of the Stone's temple. Can you believe that?!_ ]

"Not really." Jesse mumbled.

[ _And there, do you know what else we found out? Ivor was a member of the Order of the Stone! It was so weird. But anyway, using the amulet Gabriel gave me, we were able to track the locations of Magnus and Ellegaard. I went with Olivia to Redstonia so we could get Ellegaard's help to defeat the witherstorm._

 _Wish us luck._ ]

Raised eyebrows and a blank expression were the only reaction Jesse had to reading the entry. He blinked down at the book, then glanced around.

"...That escalated quickly."

* * *

 **A/N: i accidentally deviated from the original plan in the previous chapter and now i'm kinda nervous about how this story's gonna go. but that might just be me panicking over a small detail. who knows. we'll just see from here.**

 **Anyway, the question i mentioned earlier- should i put each entry in the chapter when Jesse reads it, or just summarize it and say something like 'bla bla bla jesse read through the entry'?**

 **Review Replies!**

 **BeliTheGhoti0304 - [Now I'm even _more_ worried.] [Ah.] [Well, good news then: all of those will be happening. :D] [Cool! I'm coughandcolds there. :3] [That's for me to know and for you to find out for yourself. ;)]**

 **doodlingcubes - [It's fine! ^_^]**

 **Ariza Luca - [good thing i want to, then }:D]**

 **Jay - [Thank you! That means a bunch. ^_^] [Oh. Phew. /relieved sigh] [There are, and now I have permission to reference them! YAY!] [Yay to both of those! :D]**

 **Fun actually-not-'fun'-by-its-actual-definition Fact: In the very first draft/concept for the story, Lukas was supposed to die by first being beaten horribly to near death, and _then_ suffocated to death. The suspect was going to be Axel.**

 **I think at least one of the reasons for this being scrapped is kind of obvious.  
**

 **Last thing! Those little weird messages?**

 **They're clues to the identity of the killer. :3  
**

 **See ya! :D**


	8. exciting journal reading!

Justice bit her lip upon walking inside the right mansion. A single redstone lamp hung from the ceiling the center while a single torch was placed above each painting. Eight torches, and one redstone lamp.

In other words- not very bright.

She gulped, a bead of sweat trailing down the side of her head as she looked at the dimly lit room. She grimaced when Eli pushed past her, seemingly without a thought. "Wh-what ex-xactly are we h-hoping to a-achieve here?" She asked as she looked around for a light switch. There was none.

She turned to look at the nearest painting just as Eli replied, saying, "Olivia told us that everyone in this group was in the paintings of this gallery." He extended his hand and shined the light of the torch towards the gallery. " _Eight_ paintings. Sound familiar?"

Justice's eyes landed on the plaque beneath the first painting as she hummed in thought. "Eight j-journal entries?" She looked back up at the painting, then frowned. It was a picture of when she and the others found the Wither in Ivor's lair. Except the person in the middle of the group wasn't her- it was someone else.

A girl in yellow overalls.

"Exactly." He looked at the one Justice was looking at, a blank look on his face, before he walked over to the others. "I was hoping we could find a connection between those entries and these paintings."

Justice walked over to the next picture. It was split in two - one side had a picture of a raven-haired girl in the middle of chaos, and the other had a boy in white and red surrounded by machinery.

Her eyes narrowed at the second part, then she turned around.

"H-Hey, Eli-"

But he was nowhere to be found.

* * *

 _GRTE OEK ADEM JXU FXHQIU 'MXQJ OEK QHU YD JXU TQHA?'_

 _MUBB, MXUJXUH OEK ADEM JXQJ EH DEJ, Y DUUT OEK JE IUDT CQIED QDEJXUH CUIIQWU VEH CU._

 _OUQX, QJ JXYI FEYDJ, OEK'LU RUSECU CO CUIIUDWUH. XQXQ!_

 _QDOMQO, SEKBT OEK JUBB JXUC JXQJ IECUEDU'I IFYBBUT JXU SEEB RUQDI QWQYD? JXQDAI._

 _XQLU Q WEET EDU!_

 _(Url-b! Vg'f zr, Znfba! Vs lbh'er ernqvat guvf, pbatengf!)_  
 _(Vg zrnaf lbh'ir qrpvcurerq guvf zrffntr! Ubj pbby vf gung?)_  
 _(Naljnl, hu.. gurer'f abg zhpu sbe zr gb fnl urer.)_  
 _(Rkprcg gung vs lbh'ir fbyirq guvf naq gur cnfg gjb zrffntrf, pbybe zr vzcerffrq! Lbh zvtug unir whfg orpbzr bar bs zl snibhevgr crbcyr! ..zvtug unir.)_  
 _(Unununun!)_  
 _(...lbh QVQ qrpvcure gur bgure gjb zrffntrf, evtug?)_  
 _\- znfba_

* * *

A single moment had passed before Jesse shrugged and looked back down at the journal. But just as he was about to read the second entry, Justice called out to him from across the garden. When he looked up, she was running towards him.

"What?"

"Eli!"

He frowned. "I'm not-"

"Have you seen him?" She asked in between pants. His brows furrowed.

"No, why?"

She looked around nervously, shining the torch in her hand as far as she could. "W-We were looking around th-the gallery. I was looking at o-one of the paintings, but when I t-turned around, he was g-gone."

He raised a brow. "Are you sure he didn't just go to the second floor?"

The girl gave him a look. "You think I'd have c-come here if I didn't even ch-check?"

He shrugged. "Kinda."

She frowned, then heaved a sigh. "N-nevermind. I-I'm gonna k-keep looking, a-and if he c-comes around," she pointed at the left mansion, "t-tell him I'm there, ok-kay?"

He nodded. With a grateful smile, she turned and brisk walked to the third mansion. He watched her go until she disappeared into the shadows. Then he glanced around. "Is anyone else gonna disturb me?" He asked no one in particular. Receiving no answer, he smiled, then looked down and began to read the second entry.

[ _Entry 2 - REUNITING THE ORDER_

 _So we found Ellegaard. Problem: we're stuck. In an underground room._ ] Jesse cracked up. ' _What?_ '

[ _Time to recap._

 _Olivia and I went to Redstonia and, after some complications, were able to talk to Ellegaard. And guess what? She was trying to build that pulsing machine the Wither had at the center of itself when we found it in Ivor's lair. It took her more than 6,400 tries to do so!_ ] Jesse frowned. How long was that woman trying to create that machine?

[ _We tried to help her make it, but I guess we took too long._ ]

"What, did you actually think you could make the machine that took her sixty-four hundred tries to build within minutes?" He muttered sarcastically.

[ _The Wither Storm caught up to us, and we had to make a run for it. When we got back to the Temple, we were in for some surprises. First off, Petra came back! She's okay!...well, we thought she was, but I'll get to that in a while._ ] Jesse raised a brow, but didn't comment.

[ _And the other thing. Axel went on his own to get Magnus. His and Ellegaard's encounter went just as well as you would expect._ ] ' _Not very well?_ '

[ _But Ellegaard had an idea to destroy the Wither Storm._

 _Apparently, Soren had a thing called the Formidibomb (or F-bomb, for short), which Ellegaard said could destroy the storm. Thing is, we didn't know where Soren was, so we tried the amulet again._

 _And lo and behold, the architect appears! A white light shone at the top of the map. The amulet was able to track Soren's location._ ] ' _Okay, but how? Do I get an explanation for that?_ ' He wondered.

Spoilers: He doesn't get an explanation.

[ _But it caught someone else too. A dark blue shone immediately after, and it was on its way to the white light. Try guessing who that was._ ]

' _Gabriel?_ '

[ _We left immediately to try and catch up to, or possibly get there before, Ivor._ ]

"Oh." A pause, then his eyes narrowed. ' _What's his color, then?_ '

[ _We couldn't let the Wither catch up to us._

 _So we went to Soren's place. No sign of Ivor. We all split up to cover more ground. Petra wanted to be alone with me. Why?_

 _I finally found out what was wrong with her. She wanted to tell me what it was- she had Wither Sickness._ ]

' _What's that?_ '

[ _There was a spot of purple on her left arm, and it was spreading._ ]

Jesse frowned. ' _No explanation for that, either?_ '

[ _Just then, a creeper appeared, and we got separated. Petra went to go get help, while I had to find my own way._

 _I found myself in the room I'm in now. I found Ivor, who was looking through Soren's stuff. We had a fight, with Petra joining in later on, but we lost. When everyone else (except for Magnus and Ellegaard) caught up to us, Ivor used a Splash Potion of Slowness on us and got away._

 _So here we are. Stuck._

 _I'm gonna go and look for a way out._ ]

And the entry ended there.

Jesse's eyes narrowed at the journal. ' _So you're telling me that you ended up stuck in a room and wrote all of this while a big monster was chasing you?_ ' He blinked, ' _What were the others doing while you wrote this? How long did it take for her to write this?_ '

He frowned, but continued forward and flipped to the third entry

* * *

[ _Entry 3 - Finding Soren_

 _Crap._ ]

Jesse repressed a snort. "What an intro."

[ _So we were able to use the amulet to find Soren. The amulet led us straight underground, all the way to some massive grinder._ ] ' _What's a grinder?_ ' [ _I'm assuming Soren built it himself, too._

 _And since it's a grinder, you know what else we'd find._ ] "Not really." [ _Soon enough, monsters came, and we had to fight. But a creeper caught us off guard, and it blew a hole in the tube thing we were in._ ]

' _How many creepers are these idiots gonna run into?_ ' Jesse thought with a frown. [ _The amulet went flying out of my hands, and it landed on a walkway. We immediately went down to get it back, but..._

 _Soon enough, it was teetering over an edge, and it was a choice between Axel and Reuben or the amulet._ ] Jesse frowned. ' _Wait, what? How? What's going on?!_ ' [ _I told Lukas to go after Axel, while I got the amulet. Unfortunately, we all ended up falling down to the grinder. But, as you can probably tell, we're all alive._ ]

The boy rolled his eyes. "Somehow."

[ _But Petra is mad at me. She's mad I went after the amulet instead of my friends._ ] He pursed his lips, conceding the point. [ _She wouldn't listen to my apologies, either. But at least everyone is safe, right? And Axel is actually accepting Lukas a lot faster and better than he did, so that's gotta count for something._ ]

Jesse raised a brow, but said nothing.

[ _Anyway, we found Soren. He was in the End._ ] Jesse's eyes narrowed. ' _What's he doing in the End?_ ' [ _We went through this End portal, and found him walking up some big staircase leading to a large building. After a very, very long climb, we found ourselves in some world made of wool. Signs that Soren was going bonkers, alright. But no sign of him actually there._

 _But Lukas was acting..strange. Earlier in the room, he really wanted to be the one holding the amulet, and then now, he's just exploded. So I talked to him. Turns out, he's just really, really worried about Petra. I couldn't really keep it from him, could I? Even if Petra insisted on not telling anyone (forgot to mention that earlier. Sorry)._ ]

Jesse facepalmed.

[ _So I told Lukas, and he seems to be okay now. Sort of. But anyway, after solving this puzzle that led us to some other secret hideout, Olivia and I found a room that lead straight to the rest of the End. We found out that he was trying to teach Endermen to build._ ] Jesse's brows furrowed. "Wait, what?" [ _The greatest architect of all time, and this is what he's been spending all his time on?!_ ]

Jesse was inclined to agree, for once.

[ _Frustrations aside, I had to lure him out somehow. So I used an Enderman disguise in his room and slipped into the outdoor End._ ] Jesse gaped at the journal, eyes wide in shock. ' _Does this woman_ want _to die?_ ' [ _After some complications that I don't really need to talk about, I managed to get his attention._

 _I tried explaining things to him, and sooner or later, he agreed to help us out with the F-bomb. Once we gathered all the materials needed, we left his place and to the outside, where we found Magnus and Ellegaard fighting some mobs. We were all reunited!_ ]

' _This woman has skewed priorities._ '

[ _But someone had to go set the bomb off. Nobody volunteered, so..it was up to me._ ] "And why is _that_?" [ _Before I could leave, though, both Ellegaard and Magnus offered me their armor. I chose Magnus' armor._

 _Clad in his green griefer outfit, I ran for the Wither Storm. I set off the Formidibomb, and sent it for the Storm via tractor beam. Before the explosion could take me, though, my friends caught me with a fishing rod, and reeled me away from the F-bomb's explosion._

 _We must have won, right? ..._

 _...Magnus is dead._ ]

Jesse blinked, and once again, he was in shock. He stared, going back to his 'lost fish' reaction.

' _That went from 1 to 100 really fast._ '

[ _While I was crafting the bomb, he got hit by a tentacle and was sent flying, several feet into the air. He hit a tree, hard, back first._

 _He passed, thinking that we finally won. But his sacrifice was in vain._ ]

Jesse sighed. ' _Of course_ _it was._ '

[ _While we were gathering up and helping the survivors, I found that the Command Block-_ ] "The what now?" [ _-was still intact. The F-bomb couldn't destroy it. Before I knew it, it was pulling me towards it. I tried to get away, but I couldn't._ ] Jesse's eyes narrowed.

[ _Then the impossible happened. Gabriel came back, and pulled me away from the block. As the Wither was repairing itself from above us, I found out that Gabriel had amnesia._

 _Everything is just perfect._ ]

Jesse frowned, then looked back up. He pressed his hands together and pursed his lips. His brows furrowed.

' _What?_ '

So much was happening at once. Maybe less for Jesse than Red, but still. Just a few minutes ago, he was reading about his counterpart winning the Endercon Competition and getting roped into one of Petra's shady deals. Then the Witherstorm happened, she was trusted with the Order's amulet, and suddenly she was on a mission to save the world. She reunites the Order and they get the bomb that they thought would kill the storm.

And suddenly Magnus is dead?

' _I mean... I don't even know the guy_ personally _, but… It's really sudden._ '

And, what, Gabriel's got amnesia too? What's going on?! And speaking of sudden.. how long did all of this take to happen? A few days?

He looked back down at the journal and flipped through each entry. Entry 3 was made on June 13, Δ42. His brows furrowed, he checked the second entry. June 12. Then he checked the first entry's date.

June 11, Δ42.

This all happened the same year he came from; and the building competition was set to happen on the 9th of June, Δ42.

Earlier, Thief said something along the lines of how these entries detailed "how they became the Order." 'They' being everyone there in the room save for Jesse and Reuben. If it _did_ happen to all of them, and since all the people named Jesse are the same person..

'... _Then that must mean that this was going to happen to me, too._ '

He blinked, and another moment of just taking things in ensued.

Then, he heaved a sigh.

' _There are still five other entries to go through. I should keep going._ '

With that, Jesse continued on to Entry 4.

* * *

[ _Entry 4 - Destroying the Storm_

...]

Jesse sighed. ' _I'm loving these introductions._ '

[ _We all retreated to a cave, far from the wither storm. We needed time to breath and gather our thoughts._

 _Gabriel has amnesia, Petra's basically dying of Wither Sickness, and Magnus is dead. The week hadn't even ended yet, and already, we've gone through so much crap, it's unbelievable._ ]

' _Exactly what I was thinking just earlier._ '

[ _Ellegaard and Soren are trying to help Gabriel regain his memories, while everyone else is with Petra. They must have found out by now._ ]

' _No kidding._ '

[ _When Gabriel saw Lukas' jacket, he told us that he saw the other Ocelots after the wither was temporarily defeated. At this, Lukas immediately wanted to go and find his friends, but... I couldn't let him. As much as I understood why he wanted to go, it was too dangerous for him, or any of us, to go out there alone._

 _I didn't want to lose him like we lost Magnus._ ]

' _That... sounded cliche as hell._ '

[ _Thankfully, I managed to convince him not to go._ ]

Jesse facepalmed. ' _Congrats, you just kept a guy from going after his friends. ...Then again, they_ are _the Ocelots, so..._ '

[ _But Petra wasn't getting any better. Hopefully destroying the Wither Storm will wipe away her sickness._ ]

' _That's like saying killing a wolf would get rid of a person's rabies._ ' Jesse shook his head, ' _God, this woman is an idiot._ '

[ _I overheard Soren arguing with someone not too far away, and decided to check. And guess who decided to join the party?_

 _Ivor. He came to us to tell us that we were all in danger, because the Wither Storm was programmed to follow the amulet by the command block. Which is fantastic. But he also said that he had the means to defeat the storm, but it was in his lab, which was all the way in the Far Lands._ ]

Jesse's brows furrowed.

"... _What_?"

[ _So we had to go. Axel offered to hold on to the amulet and meet with us at Soren's fortress, while we went to get the weapon that could destroy the wither storm. Ellegaard volunteered to go with. Meanwhile, Petra had to stay in the cave. (Hopefully Axel misleading the storm will at least buy her time.)_ ]

' _Just saying, other-me, but I don't think the length of time the source of the ailment stays alive determines how long it takes for the person infected to die._ '

[ _When we finally got to the Far Lands (which took us two or three days, at best)-_ ] Jesse paused, then counted the days on his fingers. ' _June 15, then?_ ' He pursed his lips and double checked, then nodded. ' _Yeah, June 15._ ' [ _Ivor wasn't with us. We got separated right when we were only running distance from his lab, so we were on our own. After getting through a messy labyrinth, we found the lab, but also a horrible truth._

 _Everyone in the Order was a_ _fraud._ ]

' _Wait,_ ' Jesse screwed his eyes shut, then they opened and narrowed down at the journal, ' _what?_ '

[ _Every single one of them. Soren, Gabriel, Ellegaard, Magnus..._

 _Apparently, Soren had used the Command Block to make them the legends they were today (except Ellegaard, apparently. She's just as a magnificent redstone engineer as she was back then). He used the same block to blink the Enderdragon out of existence, and they all took credit for destroying it._ ]

Jesse threw the journal in the air across the garden. With arms spread wide and lips pursed, he watched the blue book fall to the cobblestone path.

 _FLOP!_

A few seconds of Jesse staying in that position had passed before his arms fell to his sides and he heaved a sigh. He bit his lip and looked around, until his eyes landed on the obsidian cell behind him. "Hey, 'woman of her word!'" He called out. Silence was his response.

' _She must be asleep, then.'_

He frowned, then looked back at the book sprawled on the floor. It narrowly missed a torch, apparently. ' _Eli'd have my head if it actually caught on fire._ ' He thought with a snort, but any humor quickly died down as his gaze lingered on the book. ' _Yeah, no, I'm not gonna continue reading that thing._ ' He crossed his arms stubbornly and looked away. His eyes just so happened to land on the gate to the left mansion. ' _Justice must have gone through it, I can just ask her to tell me what happened._ '

* * *

Yeah, no.

Justice was taking far too long investigating the mansion, and god knows where Eli was right now.

Jesse grumbled. He got up and stomped over to the book, cursing his impatience as he did so. He picked it up and dusted any dirt away and flattened any crumpled pages before he went back to his spot beside Thief's cell. He reread where he left off, then continued from there.

[ _But Ivor didn't agree with their methods. He left the Order, resulting in him being erased from the legend._ ] ' _I'm guessing this 'Command Block' had something to do with that, right?_ ' [ _This entire business with the Wither Storm was to show the world what frauds the Order really was. (Although I understand where he's coming from, I don't agree with how he went about showing the world the Order of the Lies.)_ ]

Jesse had to muffle a snort at this, even though there really wasn't anyone around to hear it.

[ _Putting that aside, with us all reunited, we were able to make the weapon that could destroy the Command Block. Ivor said that it could be any weapon at all, so I went with a shovel._ ] Jesse's laughter filled the enclosed area, and he forced himself to muffle it when he remembered where and what time it was. [ _After making the enchanted shovel, Ivor showed me a bunch of enchanted armor that he made that I could have. He said they could hold against most attacks, but.._

 _I decided to keep Magnus' armor. I don't know why, it just felt...wrong.. to just replace his armor like that._ ]

' _I get that you like being on the moral high ground and all, but,_ ' Jesse kneaded his forehead and gave the journal a look, ' _I have a feeling Magnus had that armor for_ years _. Armor that's that old and worn probably wouldn't do much against a gigantic monster compared to some enchanted armor_ _._ '

[ _But my friends did get some armor, and I have to admit, they looked pretty cool in them. They just seemed to fit with them, for some reason._ ] ' _Suspicious._ ' [ _But anyway._

 _We regrouped with Axel at Soren's place, but I needed a way to get inside the Wither to access the Command Block. So what did we do?_

 _We used the Endermen. After aggravating enough of them and luring them into tractor beams, they made a big enough entryway for me to go through._ ] Jesse's brows furrowed. He blinked, then opened his mouth to say something, but stopped and shook his head. [ _After making a contraption that could send me into the Wither, I was ready to go. But midway through, Reuben joined me for the ride. He jumped into my cart and we were both sent flying for the storm._ ]

Jesse sighed and rubbed his eyes. ' _Because_ of course _he did._ '

[ _As much as I didn't want him here... I was glad I wasn't alone there. Because everything was freaky as heck. Everyone was there, but...petrified. It was bad enough that I recognized some of them, but this.._

 _I made my way for the Command Block. One strike wasn't enough for it to go bye-bye, but it was more than enough to aggravate the Wither_ _Storm._ ] ' _Maybe you shouldn't have used a shovel._ ' [ _As I was preparing another strike, I got knocked over by a tentacle._ ] ' _Wait, I thought she was_ inside _the Wither Storm?_ ' [ _There was a big struggle for getting to the block and giving it enough hits, but soon, I was finally able to get close enough._

 _But then Reuben fell, and he was sent down an abyss that I could only assume led to the outside._ ] His eyes widened. ' _Wait, what?!_ ' [ _Enraged, I swung hard at the Command Block, finally breaking it to pieces. Then everything fell apart._

 _I fell into a lake, which saved my life from falling on cold, hard stone. Reuben, meanwhile...wasn't so lucky._ ]

The book was, once again, thrown across the garden.

* * *

 **A/N: simply reading journals sounded boring, so i added some stuff from justice and eli to make it a little less boring! :D  
**

 **now.. i should get to writing chapter 8. And 9. And 10. and -**

 **Review Replies!**

 **BeliTheGhoti0304 - [Probably the latter xD] [If you say so...]**

 **Jay - [Yay! :D] [Well, if you really want to decode these messages, you're gonna have to go out of your way to look for clue and answers.] [Really? I'm more of a dog person myself. Hahaha!] [:D]**

 **NoItsBecky - [...? I think you're in the wrong chapter.]**

 **Thanks for reading, and see you in the next chapter! :D**

 **Have a good day :3**


	9. a brief change of scenery

Here's a little hypothetical scenario for everyone.

You have two people convicted for a minor crime. Let's call them... Non and Red. Authorities are convinced that both of them are involved with a more serious crime, but have no evidence.

So they try to force a confession out of them.

Non and Red are offered two decisions: Say that the other is responsible for the bigger crime, or keep quiet.

If one ratted the other out (became a 'snitch') while the other (the framed) stayed quiet, then charges on the 'snitch' will be dropped and they will be released from prison. The one framed will serve time with an additional sentence for the bigger crime.

If both of them ratted the other out, then both will serve their normal sentence. No one will be released from prison.

Lastly, if both of them stay quiet, both will serve a shorter sentence than their normal one.

The normal scenario, _The Prisoner's Dilemma_ , has neither of the convicts able to communicate with each other, with both of them placed in two different rooms. The obvious difference from that scenario and this one is that Non and Red are able to communicate.

Red wants to keep quiet.

What does Non do?

* * *

 _GSRH RH GZPRMT GLL OLMT  
SV WRWM'G ULOOLD GSV KOZM  
SV DZH GLL VCXRGVW  
VRTSG NLMGSH DZH SLD OLMT RG  
SV QFHG QFNKVW RM  
R HSLFOW YV NZW, R PMLD  
YFG R GSRMP R'W ORPV GL HVV SLD NFXS SV'OO NVHH FK YVULIV SV WVXRWVH GL KIVHH 'IVHVG'  
DV'OO HVV, DLM'G DV?_

* * *

Justice bit her lip as she went through the gate to the left mansion. The porch wasn't lit at all, making her torch the only source of light in the area. She bit her lip as she glanced around at the dark area. Trembling, she kept her eyes on the cobblestone path and made her way to the entrance of the house.

Unluckily for the girl, the first thing she noticed upon walking inside was the bloodstained armor in the first room. She let out a startled squeak, nearly dropping the torch in the process. "Justice?" She heard someone say. Looking up, she could see the light of another torch in the living room. It seemed to almost be burned out, as she could barely even see Eli's figure in the darkness.

"Hi."

She searched the wall for a light switch. Finding it, she flipped it, and suddenly the room was completely lit up by redstone lamps. With a satisfied hum, the girl walked over to Eli. "Wh-where were you?!"

He raised a brow as he kept his torch. "Uh.. here?"

"If that's t-true, then h-how d-did you manage t-to get out without making any noise?"

He shrugged. "I've got ten years on you, I think that's more than enough time for me to learn how to be stealthy."

She grumbled as she pocketed her torch. "S-So why'd you come here?" She looked up at him after glancing around, "M-more importantly, wh-why were th-the lights off?"

"They were off when I got here." He said, crossing his arms. "And there wasn't any light switch, either."

Justice's eyes narrowed. "Okay, but y-you s-still haven't a-answered my f-first q-question."

"Come and see."

He turned and walked to the bookshelf hanging above a couch, Justice following behind him. He reached for the top of one of the books and pulled it. Something clicked, then the sound of a machine's rumbling filled the room. Both Jesses turned to the direction of the sound - the corner by the garden door. A patch in the floor opened up. Justice's eyes widened upon seeing it.

Eli smiled, then let go of the book, causing it to snap back into place. The sound brought Justice's attention to it, allowing her a closer look at the book. "We have a basement." Eli said, but he went ignored as Justice squinted to look at the book.

It was a thick hard bound with black leather and gold borders. '09: Project Theta' was written in golden lettering on the bind.

"Come on." She heard Eli say, and she turned around and followed.

"What's 'Project Theta?'" She asked him.

"What makes you think I know?"

She frowned. "I-I was j-just asking." She glanced back at the bookshelf, then at him (or rather, the back of his head). "I-It's the title of th-the book that t-triggered that." She said, then pointed at the open hatch in the floor. He glanced back at her, but turned away. "P-plus," She stammered, "y-you _are_ f-from t-ten years into th-the f-f-future, s-so I…"

"Yes, yes, I get it." He stopped in front of the hatch, then gestured towards it. "Go on."

Justice glanced between the hatch and Eli, then sighed. She moved forward and climbed the ladder down the hatch.

* * *

The climb to the level below was long, and as Justice got deeper underground, there was less and less light around her - until she couldn't even see her own hands gripping the ladder. She frowned and reached for her torch. Now with light, she looked down, to see that she wasn't far from the basement.

With some difficulty, Justice finally made it to the ground floor. She looked around to see that that she was at the end of a long hall lined with torches. Frowning, she looked back up the ladder to check for Eli. "H-Hello?"

There was nothing for a moment, until she finally heard the continuous sound of something hitting wood. Her brows furrowed. She paused, then said, "I-I'm gonna l-look ahead, o-okay?"

No response, save for the sound of someone, presumably Eli, climbing down the ladder. Her frown deepened, but she turned away and walked down the hall. Most of it was just stone, and one had to wonder: How far down underground was this place?

Justice continued moving forward until she passed by a dark oak door. She looked down at the nob hesitantly, then turned it, immediately receiving a cold breeze. She shivered, squinting as the air went to her eyes. Looking in, she could see that the entire room was made of ice. Except… wait, no, not all of it. There were some drawers on the wall. They were large, and there were four, all made of metal. The girl looked down at the floor in front of her, gulped, then walked inside.

Keeping her torch away, the girl tread forward, careful. Once she made it to the first drawer, she took a closer look. The metal was cold - a given, considering the room it's in. She frowned, then looked at the others.

They were covered in frost.

This one wasn't.

The girl looked down at the door handle, then stepped back. With a grunt, the girl pulled the handle in an attempt to open the door, but failed. She tried again. After many attempts, the door still wouldn't budge. In disappointment, the girl turned to leave. However, what she saw at the door nearly made her trip.

"Did you try opening the drawer?"

She nodded, then tread carefully once more across the ice. He stepped away from the door once she made it to the other side. "W-Was it c-closed when y-you f-found it?"

"Yeah."

"Was th-the door f-r-frosty?"

He raised a brow, then looked over at the drawer. He shook his head. "I think so."

Justice frowned back at the drawer, before she turned and closed the door to the room. "Wh-what else is here?"

"A storage room, and an obsidian prison." He pointed towards the other end of the hall, and then at a door on the other side across the ice room respectively. "We should transfer Thief there."

Her eyes narrowed at the door, and she opened her mouth to speak, but Eli cut her off. "Come on, we should go."

"G-go where?"

He gave her a look. "Back up. We're going to transfer Thief, aren't we?"

Once again, Justice tried to say something, but Eli was already heading towards the ladder. With a frown and a 'hmph,' the girl followed him back up.

* * *

 **A/N: writer's block stinks  
**

 **This is just something i wrote. y'know  
**

 **Before i got writer's block. ._.  
**

 **Although it doesn't reach my usual 3,000+ word...**

 **'Standard'... it'll have to do, for now. i guess..  
**

 **Hey! question for you: ever heard of The Cask of Amontillado?**

 **please review. :') Reviews are nice. And motivating... except when they're rude. And mean. In which case..**

 **/ahem\** **Have a good day! Thanks for reading :)**


	10. we have a murder board! (sort of)

What would a normal person do if they found out that their friend was going to die? _Has_ died? They'd grieve, right? They'd probably feel like their world was crumbling and falling apart, or that they failed to protect them.

But Jesse wasn't feeling any of that.

The journal bounced off the wall and fell to the path; Jesse watching with a look that read ' _what the hell?_ ' His arms weren't spread wide open this time- instead, they were limp at his sides. With a grunt, he fell back to the wall behind him.

Reuben dies? Seriously? Out of all the people who could possibly die in their little mission to save the world, it's Reuben?

' _Then again,_ ' He thought, ' _I still haven't read about what happens to Petra_.'

Although, considering she was just here with Justice, it more or less confirms that she lives to see a Witherstorm-less world.

' _That's BS._ ' He grumbled, his palms going up to his eyes as he tried to register what he just read. ' _That's just.. What the hell.._ ' His hands lowered, and he stared at where the book had landed. He took in a deep breath as his eyes wandered the garden.

Seeing the path leading to the left mansion, Jesse had to wonder: What was taking Justice so long?

' _She must have found Eli there._ ' He thought. A frown formed on his face. If that's true, then they might still be investigating the place. Thoroughly, probably. He didn't recall taking this long when he was investigating.

He brushed some hair away from his face as he looked around, when an idea hit him when he felt the rocks behind his head. He shifted to glance at the makeshift cell, then whispered. "Hey Thief?"

..Whispered? He shook his head, took the torch beside him and got up to look through the barred window. He shined the light in as much as he could. From what he could see, Thief was leaning on the wall, her head tilted and her knees kinda-sort of to her chest. She seemed to be sleeping.

"Hey, Thief!" He whispered, a little louder this time. She mumbled something and shifted a bit, but didn't wake up. He frowned, then tip toed. "Thief!"

"Hm?"

He hit the bars of the window repeatedly to wake her up. "Thief, hey!"

Thief made a noise as she actually began to open her eyes and stretch. She looked up at him, squinting. "What is it?" She mumbled.

"Reuben dies?"

Her eyes, though still sleepy, widened as she froze. She heaved a sigh as her hands reached to rub her eyes. "Yeah," she said with a nod, "he does."

He looked away with a 'well then' smile on his face. "Hm."

Thief got up from where she sat and leaned against the wall, closer to the window so she and Jesse could talk a little better. "You finally got to that part?"

"Yeah."

The girl tilted her head. "You okay?"

He said nothing for a bit, instead pursing his lips, then he looked at her with brows furrowed. "Could you explain it in detail? All the journal said was that he fell."

Thief frowned, shifting in place. "You want me to explain how he died?"

"Pretty much."

Her frown deepened, and she glanced between Jesse and the walls of her cell. She sighed and held her arm.

"Alright, fine."

* * *

 _GWKL OC BVA FRROW?  
CXCFA OC BVA?  
YXC'A GNSPX AXDGWLTSPX DDRPX_

PP YQJ'EZ HCKGOQY MUOC, NBKJ VLAOM CWB SZCBBG HK  
LOG KXLM ZTD PBAFC NP WN RABE KXC IKIQ LXJOQ  
CZADYNVPMZ RA WNSPX ZN CMPDJY..

(ldxf dsx ufjr uge?)  
(n pruu miu cu ylh dmfgn eifqegs...)  
(tv zct nx swsuph?)  
\- obxsq

* * *

Jesse went over Thief's tale of Reuben's death in his head; the specifics of which made no sense. Apparently, one of the heads of the Witherstorm appeared within the 'belly of the beast,' as Thief liked to call it. As Reuben went up to give Thief her axe (one of the things different from what was written in Red's journal), the mouth grabbed Reuben's leg; Thief managed to get his arm. Then she lost her grip, the Storm let go, and Reuben fell down the hole they came in through.

He landed on the ground.

Thief destroyed the Command Block and fell down the same hole.

She landed in water.

Jesse facepalmed.

"How does that make any sense?!"

Thief could only shrug. "I dunno man, but it happened." She straightened, laughing nervously, "Oh, and uh, I should probably tell you something else too. Though…"

Jesse kneaded his forehead, "If you're worried about how it's gonna affect me," He raised his fingers and counted, "Let me remind you that someone is dead, the multiverse has just been proven to be real, and I just found out that Reuben dies and how he dies." He lowered his hand, brows raised. "Try me."

The girl blinked at him with an 'if you say so' look, took in a deep breath, then said, "Reuben'sapiginmyuniverse."

Jesse's eyes narrowed. Then he blinked.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"He's a pig. That's-" She laughed as she grabbed the nape of her neck, "That's what I said. He's a pig."

…Definitely one of the weirder things Jesse's learned today.

He sighed, holding the bridge of his nose. "I'm guessing it's the same for everyone else?"

She nodded. "Yeah, same thing."

He held his chin in thought. "That certainly explains why you guys were confused when I introduced him." He muttered. Thief hummed.

"Yeah, that's why."

' _So Reuben's a pig in their universes._ ' Jesse frowned, ' _I guess that makes sense, considering his pig motif, but it raises another question. Why is that?_ '

Why was Reuben a pig in other universes, but human in his?

Jesse huffed, giving Thief his thanks before turning away and sitting down, reviewing everything he knew so far. Evidence, people, questions.. Questions like: Who _really_ killed Lukas? Where did Red go? Who was the man with the white eyes? Why were they all from different times? What did the portraits mean? Why were the eyes crossed out?

Jesse's eyes narrowed. ' _Speaking of,_ ' he crossed his arms, ' _Why don't_ we _have portraits?_ '

Including Lukas's missing portrait, Olivia had one, Petra had one, some strangers had some, heck, even _Ava_ had a portrait! And how was she relevant to what was going on right now? ' _What did those five portraits even have to do with_ anything _?_ ' Jesse closed his eyes and rubbed them, sighing exasperatedly.

Nights usually last seven hours.

At least half an hour has passed.

He huffed. ' _I wonder if I should list everything on-_ '

A loud screech interrupted him, causing him to jump and for Thief to let out a surprised yelp. They both turned to look to the direction of the sound, to see two orange lights in the shadows of the left mansion. Jesse stood up when he saw Justice and Eli walk out.

For whatever reason, Justice was staying a few paces away from Eli.

Eyes narrowed, Jesse walked. "Hey, guys," he called. The three met in the middle. Even then, Justice was still standing a little away from Eli. "Do either of you happen to have paper?" Jesse bit his lip and glanced away, trying to remember something he might have forgotten. Unbeknownst to him, Eli's frown deepened. "...and a qui- pen?"

"Well, it just so happens that..." Jesse blinked as he watched Eli reach into his pockets, then brought out a quill and a thin notebook. "I found this in the mansion. Here," He handed it over to Jesse, who accepted it with confused eyes. "You can have it."

"Huh…" ' _That's rather.. convenient._ ' Jesse flipped through the blank pages of the notebook, then pocketed it and the quill. "Thanks."

Justice tilted her head. "Wh-what d-do you need it f-for?"

"I'm gonna.. list down all the evidence we found. And stuff." He glanced to the side and held the nape of his neck, "Uhm.. a murder board. I'm making a tiny murder board."

Her mouth formed an 'o.' She nodded. "I see."

He looked between the two of them. "So what're you two gonna do?"

"We're gonna investigate the middle mansion. How's Thief?"

Jesse twisted to look at the cell, then back to his other two counterparts. "Fine."

Eli nodded. "Then we'll be on our way."

Justice was stammering as the older boy began to walk ahead. She frowned, looked back at Jesse, waved goodbye, then followed Eli to the middle mansion. Jesse returned the wave and watched them go. He frowned.

' _I didn't get to ask what took them so long. Bummer._ ' His mind went back to the notebook and quill, and he took it out. ' _At least I've got this._ ' He looked at the nib of the quill, then down at the notebook. ' _I wonder…_ '

He flipped to the first page and scribbled the first word that came to mind.

' _ **gronsfeld'**_

He blinked. So there _is_ ink. Good to know.

He heard Thief calling out a "Hey, guys!" as he walked back to her cell.

…but then he remembered that he was pretty close to where the journal fell. He stopped, turned around, and brisk walked to retrieve the blue journal. Once that was done, he made his way back to the cell.

* * *

" _Tick tock goes the clock, and what now shall we see?_ "

Jesse frowned as he wrote his notes; all the questions, evidence, and possible theories that came up from the investigation (although he might have missed some. He knows Justice and Logic were investigating while he, Eli and Olivia found the mansions). Biting his lip, he left a little note at the side of the margins. "ask Logic & Justice re: evidence"

"Uh… _Tick tock… and all too soon.. you and I must.. …_ no, that's not right."

He shook his head, then crossed out the word 'evidence,' replacing it with the word 'investigation.'

" _...Hmm hmhmm… oh, who will find me? Deep down below the old beach tree…_ "

The boy sighed. He glanced up at the barred window of the cell, annoyed. "Thief!"

Her reply was muffled, but it sounded like it came from directly behind him. "Yeah?"

"What are you doing?!"

"Uh.… Humming?"

He raised a brow. He was certain he heard lyrics. "Humming what?"

Another pause, then, "Some songs.. lullabies, from some audio plays. You have audio plays in your w- universe, right?"

"Yeah..?" His brows furrowed, "What were the plays?"

"I know one of them was _Sherlock_ , but the other… I can't remember it. I think they were Olivia's?" Jesse frowned. He didn't remember Olivia having any audio plays with those songs.. "Or, no… I think they were Lucy's.."

Jesse's eyes widened. Lucy?

"Yeah.. I think Lucy gave them to Olivia. That might be it."

Jesse straightened where he sat, alarmed. "I'm sorry, did you say _Lucy_?" He looked back down at his notes on the paintings: '5 weird paintings,' with the list of the names of the subjects below it (along with some other notes and questions).

"Yeah, why?"

"Is she a blond girl with a stetson? Black vest, purple striped shirt?"

"Y-Yeah," He heard some shuffling behind him. He stood up, then looked through the window. Thief stood up too. "How do you know?"

"I found some weird paintings in the mansion over there." He pointed at the left mansion as he said this. "There were five paintings for five people."

Her brows furrowed. "You're saying Lucy was one of them?"

' _She catches on quick._ ' He nodded. She frowned, and held her chin in thought. "But why?" She glanced down, then at Jesse. "Who were the others?"

Jesse looked down at the journal and read the list. "In order, it was Oliver, Peter, Lucy, Ava, and Reuben." He looked at his counterpart. "Recognize any of them?"

"Besides Reuben?" She shook her head, "None of them. But 'Oliver?' 'Peter?'" She crossed her arms. "Don't you find it suspicious that they sound similar to our other friend's names?"

He held his chin, thinking it over. "And then there's Lukas. He _does_ look similar to Lucy, don't you think? He's got her blond hair, her blue eyes.. Of course, he doesn't have the stetson and the vest, but come on. And then there's their names-"

"Her eyes were blue?"

She blinked at him, confused. "You'd think a portrait of her would have her eyes, right?"

"See, that's the problem. All their eyes were crossed out. You noticed it with the ones in the main room, didn't you?"

"I guess that'd make sense… But the question, is.."

"Why were they crossed out?"

She nodded. "Exactly." Then she waved her hand, "But back to the topic of Lucy and Lukas. If their names are similar, then Oliver must be Olivia, Peter must be Petra.."

"They _did_ look similar to them, too. Then there was that Aiden guy.."

"Aiden, Ava.. Don't tell me this Ava girl was wearing a leather jacket and green shirt too?"

"She does, actually."

Thief tilted her head. "'Does?' You know her?"

Jesse rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately."

"But you don't know Aiden?"

He shook his head. "Then the last is Reuben… And it was a portrait of _my_ Reuben.." He pursed his lips. "And Olivia _did_ recognize the name 'Peter.'"

Thief held her chin, her eyes narrowed. "Do you think those are pictures of, like.. different versions of everyone here?" He raised a brow. "I mean, excluding us. Y'know, everyone named 'Jesse.'"

He frowned. "That would make sense, but that raises two more questions." Looking down at his notes, he took out the quill and wrote as he spoke. "One, where is Axel's portrait? And two, if those _are_ portraits of different versions of the people here, where is Ava?" He stopped, and tilted his head. "And I guess there's also the matter of why only some are recognized."

"That's true…"

Both of them paused. Thief was tapping her chin in thought, and Jesse was studying his notes.

* * *

 _ **5 weird paintings**_

 _ **Oliver - Olivia**_

 _ **Peter - Petra**_

 _ **Lucy - Lukas**_

 _ **[alpha b****] Ava - ''Aiden''**_ _ ** _ **(male counterpart? ?**_ Seriously?!)**_

 _ **Reuben - Pig Reuben? (makes sense)**_

 _ **Liv recognizes Peter  
**_

 _ **Thief '' Lucy**_

 _ **me '' Ava & Reub**_

 _ **\- where's Axel's?**_

 _ **\- where's Ava?**_

* * *

' _They might just be the differences between our universes… I mean, Ava and Reuben are here, too. That makes two things from me. Thief has Lucy, and Liv has Peter. That just leaves Oliver._ ' Jesse frowned, ' _There's also the matter of the two portraits in the walkway. Those didn't have any names. What's their significance here?_ '

The exact same problem with Ava's portrait and those other two in the main room. 'Ivor' and 'Harper.'

Ava, Ivor, Harper, the man in blue, and the woman in green. What did those five have to do with anything?

"We're wasting time."

He blinked up at the girl, who was currently fixing the clip in her hair. "Huh?"

"I don't think anyone's asleep right now."

"What do you mean?"

She didn't even look at him as she spoke. "Exactly what I said." Satisfied with her fixed clip, she brushed some of her bangs away from her face. "I don't think anyone's actually asleep right now."

He closed the notebook shut. "What makes you say that?"

"I think they're all just a little too unnerved by tonight's events to sleep." She shrugged, "Or maybe not. I could be wrong."

Jesse frowned, but said nothing. He only nodded, then turned away and sat down, opening his notebook once more and adding to his notes.

If he's gonna be awake for the next few hours, he might as well be _somewhat_ productive.

* * *

 _ **LUKAS'S MURDER**_

 _ **\- axe (diamond enchanted) to the chest**_

 _ **\- died like this? -**_ [Jesse drew a picture of his visualization of Lukas's death]

 _ **\- Bloody axe. Belongs to Thief. (odd bloodstain)**_

 _ **\- his sword. Caught in a fight. (gotten it from hut?)**_

 _ **\- Justice saw her fighting w/ 'Thief' (did reub see it too?)**_

 _ **\- covered in potion (what potion?)**_

 _ **\- bloody pendant + pen (currently missing. where is it?)**_

 _ **\- tarps left behind. (important?)**_

 _ **[MANSIONS] LOCATION**_

 _ **\- mansions = illusion. actually gigantic iron blocks.**_

 _ **\- who built it?**_

 _ **\- connected to maze via railway. seven carts. 4 + 3**_ [There's a small diagram of the maze.

 _ **\- maze has 6 entrance/exits + 6 huts. all color coded. -**_ Anything that should be colored is labeled.]

 _ **\- big lake in the middle. No fish in it. Pretty shallow. + Also has a weird makeshift sun.**_

[there's a sketch of the banner from his hut] _**what does this mean?**_

 _ **\- dusty ladder railway 'stations.' some weird gaps in them. why?**_

 _ **PAINTINGS**_

 _ **\- Liv, Petra, Axel, Ivor, Harper, Maya, Aiden, and Gill all have portraits**_

 _ **\- Lukas' portrait is missing.**_ [a drawing of the key symbol] _ **: ORDER is written where it should be. (where did it go? + what does ORDER mean?)**_

 _ **\- all eyes are crossed out w/ red**_

 _ **\- tan skinned man w/ brown hair + blue shirt + middle aged? & orange haired woman + green shirt + green eyes - portraits in mansion (who are they?)**_

 _ **\- paintings in gallery.**_ [A list of the painting's names follows]

[beside that entry is the '5 weird paintings' entry]

 _ **DATES**_

 _ **\- me + reub: May 19, Δ42**_

 _ **\- eli: Δ52**_

 _ **\- justice: December Δ42**_

 _ **\- logic + olivia: February Δ43**_

 _ **\- thief + axel: Feb**_

* * *

Jesse blinked. "Thief?"

"Yeah?" Was her muffled reply. So she was still awake.

"Are you sure you don't remember the exact date you blacked out?"

A long pause. Then she said, "Now that I think about it? I think it was March. I think it was already March when I blacked out."

His eyes narrowed. "Why aren't you sure?"

"The Portal Hallway didn't exactly have a calendar or clock."

' _What?_ ' Jesse shifted. "What do you mean, 'Portal Hallway?'"

She groaned. "Long story, don't wanna explain." ..Did she yawn just now? "I haven't slept in a while."

Jesse pursed his lips, his brows furrowing in confusion, but he nodded. "Okay then."

He'll probably find out when he reads the journal.

But that can be put off for later. Right now, he'll finish his notes.

* * *

 _ **DATES**_

 _ **\- me + reub: May 19, Δ42**_

 _ **\- eli: August(?) Δ52**_

 _ **\- justice + petra: December Δ42**_

 _ **\- logic + olivia: February Δ43**_

 _ **\- thief + axel: [Feb] March Δ43**_

 _ **\- red + lukas:**_

* * *

He frowned, then took out the journal and flipped to the page bookmarked with a ribbon. Which was the last page. The date on the entry read "December 9, Δ45"

He hummed, then returned to his notebook.

* * *

 _ **DATES**_

 _ **\- me + reub: May 19, Δ42**_

 _ **\- eli: August(?) Δ52**_

 _ **\- justice + petra: December Δ42**_

 _ **\- logic + olivia: February Δ43**_

 _ **\- thief + axel: [February Δ43] March Δ43**_

 _ **\- red + lukas: December 9, Δ45 (src: journal)**_

 _ **\- the clock in the hall read May 20, Δ50. 8 years into the future. Why the future?**_

 _ **\- bloody armor.**_ [a sketch of the armor] _**Whose was it? What happened? Did they die here?**_

 _ **\- tattoos. Everyone has a partner with the same tattoo - except Eli. Why?**_

 _ **\- Red's journal. The only blue in the bookcase. (why is it here?)**_

 _ **\- "Shuffle" picture in library. What does it mean?**_

 _ **\- 3 genres: Portals/Travel, Mystery(?), and architecture (that's a genre?)**_

 _ **\- man w/ white eyes. Can he teleport? Who is he?**_

* * *

With that last bit, Jesse put down the quill and skimmed over his work. He bit the inside of his cheeks, brows furrowing in thought. ' _Should I add that, or…?_ '

Thief's muffled voice interrupted his thoughts. "Hey, Non?"

' _She's still awake? I thought she barely got any sleep._ ' He tilted his head back against the obsidian wall. "Yeah?"

"Do you think I killed Lukas?"

' _That's a weird question to ask.._ ' "Why?"

"I just wanna know who's on my side." She said, "'You _really_ think I killed him?"

Jesse bit his lip, thinking over his answer. Did he really believe that she killed him? ' _I mean, sure, she does have some evidence against her right now, and it'd make sense, but do I really_ believe _she killed him?_ '

In the end, he shook his head. "Not really."

There was a pause, then Thief said with a chuckle. "That's good to know." He heard some shuffling from behind the obsidian, then, "G'night."

"Good night."

With that, Jesse returned to the notebook. He'd already written everything he knew at this point, right?

He glanced a the journal, then frowned. ' _There's still that thing. Do I_ have _to?_ '

The clock from earlier _did_ read something along the lines of 11PM or 12AM. At least one or two hours have passed, which must mean there are only a couple more hours until dawn; supposedly the time when they wake everyone else up.

He could either read the journal or just wait and ask someone what happens after the whole Witherstorm fiasco.

…

He nodded, and pocketed the notebook and quill.

He'll just wait for either Eli or Justice to come around. Or wait for dawn.

Either way, he's done with books for one night.

* * *

 **A/N: y'know what i'd like to know? why did reuben follow jesse into the storm wth**

 **Anyway, hhh there are two more weeks until school. If I want this thing to have steady updates (for anyone who cares), I'm gonna have to pre-write like... ten or twenty chapters. I dunno. But anyway, because of that, this thing might or might not be on hold for a bit because i take a long while to write chapters. it's unfortunate.**

 **Anyway. Review Reply to Jason: Yay! You know it too! :3 I only read that one story of his, but I think I can agree with you on him being a good author.**

 **Oh! About that code... I think I'll give you a hint. Substitution's not something you can figure out for yourself easily, I think. BIRD = ANCE. Now that's one hint coin off of you. Two left.**

 **Does anyone know AURORA's song "Murder Song"? It's a really nice song- you should listen to it. :3**

 **Please review :') I like reviews. Reviews are nice. I dunno, how was your day? What did you think of this chapter?**

 **...**

 **this is sad.**


	11. record girl

"-on? Non, wake up."

…Wait, what?

Jesse felt some hitting his arm repeatedly. He grimaced, and swat the arm away. "What?"

"Get up," he heard someone with his voice say. That's weird. Why was he hearing his own-?

Oh.

Ohh.

' _Is it dawn?_ ' He opened his eyes, expecting to have to adjust to light, to see.. the exact same darkness as last night. That's odd. Suddenly, something white moved into his line of sight. He blinked, then looked up. Eli's disgruntled face greeted him. "Get up."

Jesse frowned when he felt someone else pat his shoulder. He glanced behind him to see Justice sheepishly mouthing 'excuse me.' A diamond pick axe was in her hand. He moved forward, and she got to work. Confused, the boy glanced at the journal and torch beside him and picked both up, pocketing the journal as he stood. "I don't get it, why's it still dark?"

"We still have no idea." Said Eli, "But the clocks said that it was 5AM already, so we might as well."

From behind him, Jesse could hear Justice waking Thief up. "Isn't that a little too early?"

Eli frowned. "We'd be wasting time."

' _Exactly what Thief said…_ '

"What's going on?" One of the girls from behind him asked. He turned to see Justice helping a groggy Thief stand up.

Eli answered before Justice could. "I found a small prison under the middle mansion."

Thief frowned. "Oh, don't tell me."

The eldest ignored his counterpart, instead addressing Jesse and Justice. "Both of you get the others, I'll bring Thief to the prison. We'll meet back in the main room and discuss our next move."

"Pretty pointless…" Thief murmured in a sing-song. Which was already pointless in and of itself, considering all three heard her. Justice sighed and face palmed. Eli frowned, and Jesse simply tilted his head, conceding her point.

"She's not wrong…" ' _Assuming we're thinking the same thing.._ '

Eli walked over and grabbed her wrist, which she responded to with a yelp. "Come on. Both of you, get the others." And he continued on, not even bothering to stay for their reply.

"Aye, aye." Jesse responded with a measly salute. Justice looked at him, confused. He blinked at her and dropped his hand. "What?"

She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it, shaking her head. "L-Let's just g-get the others."

"Yeah."

With that agreement, the two split up. Justice went to the middle mansion, and Jesse went to the right.

* * *

For whatever reason, the garden was a lot less dim than before he (apparently) fell asleep. The torches that used to be on the path to the mansions were now mounted on the walls amid ivy and moss. And although he never actually went to the right mansion before, looking at the rather well lit porch, he had a feeling that someone had added more light to the place.

He honestly wouldn't be surprised if it was Justice responsible. He had to wonder where they got all the torches, though.

That aside, the right 'mansion' (can't they give these things names? He's getting tired of the word) was almost exactly like the other two. Looks like a big block of iron, has double dark oak doors..

Other than the fact that the door was straight ahead of the gate and the porch and the house extended to the left, there was nothing new here.

The interior was, of course, different from the outside. The room inside was lit with orange, torches lining the empty spaces of the walls. The floor, walls and the ceiling were all made of quartz. Ahead of Jesse was either a wall or a partition. Sitting in the corner was a sad and withering potted plant. The wall beside was bare.

He turned to the rest of the room which, with the additional light of the redstone lamp in the center, was rather well-lit. Walking further in, he could see that eight paintings hung from the three walls of the gallery. Three on the door's wall, two straight ahead, and another three on the opposite wall.

The paintings were all fairly large, each with some expensive-looking golden frame. The first painting, which was right next to Jesse, was titled "The Order of the Stone." It was a painting of Lukas, Olivia, Axel, Petra, a girl in very recognizable yellow overalls and a piglet looking at a structure made of.. something.. in the shape of a T, with two wither skulls on either side. In the very middle of the structure was an odd block with six glowing 'things' in the middle.

'That must be the Command Block. And the girl in yellow must be Red.'

Why her hair reached her shoulders, however, was beyond him.

The second portrait was split in two. One side had a girl who resembled Thief surrounded by smoke and ash, the other had a boy who resembled Eli standing around machines. The title read "Assembly Required."

Odd.

But now's not the time to look at paintings.

Jesse turned away from the painting and headed to the opposite side of the room, catching flashes of something blue and white as he gave the final painting a quick glance, and headed left. That portion of the room was on the other side of a wall and the partition in front of the main door. At the end of the small hall was a simple table with a small, potted cactus. Jesse walked in, then turned left again, straight into a stair case.

Time to wake up the others.

* * *

"Why is it so dark out?"

Jesse walked out the third mansion, a somewhat sleepy Reuben by his side. The older of the two shrugged as they walked out. "'Still got no idea." He said, pushing the gate open and letting Reuben through. The boy frowned, looked behind him at the mansion as he walked out.

"Did you say something to Axel?" He then asked, suspicion lacing his tone. It was Jesse's turn to frown.

"What makes you ask?"

The boy in pink shrugged as he followed Jesse to the middle mansion. "I dunno. He just seemed pretty upset after you talked to him."

"It was just about Thief. Nothing to worry about."

"So you did say something to him?"

The pair stopped, and Jesse gave Reuben a half-hearted glare. The latter only raised an eye brow in response.

Jesse sighed.

"Let's just get going."

* * *

Jesse and Reuben got to the main room, to find the Logic pair and Justice already there, eating breakfast (a breakfast consisting of bread and fish). The two joined them, sitting in the couch between Logic and Olivia and Justice, who seemed to be saving the seat beside her for Petra. While Reuben ate his breakfast, Jesse added more to his notes, taking the occasional bite from the cooked salmon in his hand as he did so.

The boy frowned when he was finished writing, looking down at his notes with eyes narrowed.

This was quite the conflicting situation.

You suspect something that the others probably don't, but revealing that information could either make things worse or lead you closer to the truth of what was going on.

What to do?

Jesse glanced away from his notebook and at Reuben, who was playing with some loose string of a pillow. Then he looked at the others. Logic and Olivia were discussing something quietly. And very quietly, because they weren't that far from Jesse, and although he could tell that they were talking, he couldn't hear a word they were saying. Turning away, he looked at Justice, who was fidgeting in place, staring at the portraits. Which portrait she was staring at, Jesse could only guess.

He sighed, then closed his notebook shut and pocketed it and the quill.

A few moments had passed before Petra and Axel arrived. Axel took to standing behind the small table between the couches Jesse and Justice were sitting on, with Petra joining Justice beside her. Shortly after that, Eli came along.

"So what's the plan?" Jesse asked, twisting in his seat to look at the boy.

"We already went over this, didn't we?" Reuben gave Jesse a genuinely confused look. "Look for Red, a way out, and… look for Lukas's body?"

Jesse frowned. "Yeah, but why bother with that last part? He's dead, move on with it."

Everyone else visibly tensed; some of them straightening in their seats, others glaring at Jesse. The boy looked at all of them, confused. "What? I'm just saying!" He shrugged. "Plus, if we find him, what are we gonna do with him?"

"At least we'd know where he is." Said Petra. Logic nodded, "And we can trace the murderer's movements from there."

Axel cut in, leaning forward to join the group. "Wait, so can we all agree that Thief isn't the killer?"

Justice mouthed 'no,' and Reuben shook his head. "Why not?!"

"Because we saw her!"

Jesse blinked, then looked down at Reuben. Eli's eyes narrowed. "You saw it too?"

Reuben bit his lip. "Well…" Eli sighed, and was about to speak when Justice interrupted. "B-back to the t-topic of Lukas, I… I-I think I know where h-he is."

"You do?!"

She nodded. "Under th-the left mansion, E-Eli and I found th-this room made of ice, w-with four drawers."

Olivia frowned. "A morgue?"

"Yeah.. Th-three were f-frosted over, b-but one…" She gulped and began to comb her hair with her fingers, "I-I think it's b-been used."

"But did you open it?"

Petra shook her head. "She couldn't. The drawer was either locked or too heavy to open for her."

Everyone went silent, thinking this information over. "Is this why you wanted us to meet here, even though we already discussed our 'next move' yesterday?"

He turned to Eli, who nodded. "Exactly. If there are rooms under one of the mansions, there has to be more under the others."

"And you want us to look for them, is that it?" Axel asked, crossing his arms. Eli nodded.

"So try to open the drawer in the morgue, look for more underground rooms, Red, Lukas, and a way out." Reuben counted, then looked at everyone else. "Is that right?"

"And find out who brought us here and why." Olivia added. Justice fidgeted in her place. "W-We can talk to Thief -and ask her a-about it."

"Then do that." Eli looked between everyone. "Is that everything?"

"I think so.."

Eli nodded. "Then we should get going. We should meet back here by the end of the day."

"Just asking," Petra chimed as she stood up. "But how are we supposed to know what time of day it is when it's still dark out?"

The boy waved his hand. "There are clocks all around the compound." He said. Petra glanced at Justice for confirmation, which the small girl responded to with a nod. "You can use those."

The redhead frowned.

"Fine."

* * *

Justice and Petra left first, presumably to the left mansion. The next to go were Logic and Olivia, who left right after the Justice pair did. Eli left a few short moments after, leaving behind Axel, Reuben and Jesse. Finally, Axel left, leaving Jesse and Reuben alone. Jesse got up, Reuben following, and he walked to the door that led to the other half of the mansion. "What are we gonna do?" Reuben asked.

"Look around." He said as he pushed the doors open, glancing around briefly before heading to the doors at the other side of the hall. "Haven't gotten a very good look at the place."

"Oh."

And the two went through the doors.

The room on the other side was well lit with redstone lamps, but it wasn't very big. In fact, it seemed to be as large as their one room in the treehouse. On one side of the wall was a bookshelf that took up most of the space, while the other had two double chests, and five framed discs above them. Sitting in the corner was a jukebox. Ahead was a single desk made of dark oak wood. Behind it, a simple chair, and behind that chair, a painting. The desk itself was neat and tidy, with a small stack of papers in the middle. A quill sat in an inkwell, and beside it was a stick- most likely an unlit torch. At the side opposite of the inkwell and torch was a potion bottle with some sort of black substance in it.

While Reuben went to inspect the discs, Jesse went to the desk and picked up the potion. It was corked. Jesse frowned, then moved the bottle around, swishing the liquid inside. It seemed to be like any other normal potion. Odd that it was black.

Jesse put the potion down and looked at the other things in the table. He ended up looking over each of them fairly quickly, as none of them were even remotely interesting. With the desk done, the boy looked up at the painting.

It was about as big as the paintings in the gallery, with the same frames and everything. The painting itself depicted a large landscape from a bird's eye view, looking down on some large crack on the ground (and by large, I mean spanning from one mountain to another. That large). There were some small figures, humans, most likely, standing a distance away from the crack, with a small part of it reaching them. The plaque beneath the painting read "A World Unwound," with the word 'Rush' in smaller text under it. Or was it a name?

'That must be the one who painted it, then, right?' Something clicked behind Jesse as he stepped around the table and closer to the painting. He glanced behind him briefly to see Reuben get up, his hands still on one of the double chests. Then he turned away, and he searched every inch for a signature..

And he found one.

"GR" it read. Perhaps they were initials? It didn't match the name 'Rush,' though. 'Not unless the 'R' stands for Rush. 'Rush' might be the surname of the painter then, right?'

"Hey, Jesse!"

He turned to look behind him, where Reuben was holding a disc with a pink inner circle. "Yeah?" Reuben held the disc up, then pointed at one of the empty frames. Confused, Jesse stepped around the desk and walked closer. Written on the empty frame, presumably where the disc came from, was 'April 7, Δ48.' "Should I?"

Jesse nodded. "Go ahead."

Reuben nodded and inserted the disc into the jukebox slot. The track started immediately, with the sound of someone, a girl, it sounds like, coughing, coupled with the clicks of depleting health. Jesse and Reuben exchanged weary and confused glances. Muffled voices came on as the coughing continued, thumps accompanying it. They heard the sound of a door, and then..

"Jesse?!" "Oh no!"

It only took them a second to realize that the owners of the voices in the track were Lukas and Axel. They heard rapid footsteps (they must have been running), along with panicked murmurs from the two boys, with 'Jesse' coughing violently the entire time (it seemed to be getting worse, as well). There was some shuffling, the sound of glass clinking together, then a panicked Axel asked, "What's that?!"

"Potion of Regeneration!"

Another clink of glass. "What if it doesn't work?!"

"Just give it to her!"

The faint sound of something popping, presumably a cork, followed by some liquid flowing, and the coughs slowly becoming less and less violent, until it fully disappeared. Both Lukas and Axel breathed a sigh of relief, with the sound of glass, the potion bottle, falling to the floor. The sound of shuffling came through as they faintly heard Lukas muttering a relieved "She's alive… Oh my god, she's alive.."

More shuffling, a few moments passing, then footsteps. "What do you think she was doing?" Axel asked in between breaths.

"I honestly… I've no idea." Lukas said, "Check her journal." More shuffling, and some thumps. "There might be something there."

'Journal?' Jesse frowned, then took out the blue journal. Could it be…?

The sound of papers and books being moved around on wood came up, along with shuffling and huffs. A soft thump, then, "Which one's her journal?!"

"It's the blue one."

Jesse's eyes widened, and he looked at Reuben, who had a similar reaction. The two exchanged looks before both of them looked at the blue book. "Check for the thing!" Reuben prompted, but Jesse was already ahead, flipping through the pages for any entry made during April 7, Delta48.

"Found it." Axel said. Footsteps followed, then silence. A few moments later, and Jesse found the entry as well.

[Poisoning raw food's easy.] Jesse bit his lip, mentally face palming. 'Don't tell me she didn't...' Jesse skimmed through the entry, skipping most of it until he read the sentence: [So… I'm going to try it on myself.]

The boy sighed, 'She did.'

"She poisoned herself?!" Reuben exclaimed.

"No, she just ate an expired pie." Jesse mumbled sarcastically. Reuben frowned, then blinked, and looked back at the jukebox. "Wait, we missed the last part."

Jesse raised a brow. "We did?" The track was still playing, but Reuben still went. He pressed the rewind button lightly, then played. It repeated a small part of the sequence they already heard, which they didn't bother paying attention to. Axel's "Found it" came through, footsteps following it. Silence, and then Lukas spoke.

"Oh, dammit…" He said. Footsteps and shuffling following. "Dammit, Jesse…"

"I mean, I… I guess it isn't so surprising, but…" A small moment passed, then, "We should probably clean this up."

"What about Jesse?"

"Uhh.. Olivia or Petra can help."

Neither of them said anything for a moment. Then Lukas finally responded. "Yeah.. yeah, sure."

"Watch Jess, I'll get the others." Said Axel, with footsteps coming up as he said this.

"Of course."

That's where the track ended.

"So that was Red, then, right?" Reuben asked. "I mean, there's the entry, then there's this tape…"

Jesse held his chin in thought. "It probably is. So the question is… why are these records here?"

Reuben blinked. "For a moment, I thought you were gonna ask something inconsequential."

A smile tugged at Jesse's lips, but he said nothing in response. Instead, he looked at the other four discs. "It also confirms that she's not from the year Delta45, if that date is anything to go by."

"Do you think the others are recordings too?"

Jesse reached for the next disk, this time with a dark and light green inner circle. He took it out of its frame, to see another date written on the frame. "April 13, Δ48." Jesse read aloud. He turned to the jukebox and placed the disc inside.

Contrasting the earlier recording, the cries of crickets and nature played in the background, footsteps going through leaves and soil following soon after.

"So…" A boy said, "I heard you poisoned yourself last week?"

Jesse (or should we call her Red?), the girl in the recording, groaned. "Oh my god, they told you about that?!"

'Talk about continuity.'

The boy laughed. "Lukas did, actually. He was really upset about it."

"They all were."

The pair continued to move through what seemed to be either a jungle or the woods, before the boy asked. "What happened, exactly?"

"He didn't give you details?"

"He was too fired up about you potentially killing yourself to tell me."

"Of course he was."

"So…?"

There was a pause. "Fine." More footsteps and nature, then, "Ivor told me about how poisoned food wasn't actually a thing, and probably won't ever be a thing because there hasn't ever been an update for it. But that doesn't make any sense, does it? I mean, mantel clocks I understand, but poisoned food?"

Another pause. "So I figured I could, y'know.."

"Try to cheat the updates and make it yourself?"

..Was that thunder rumbling in the distance? Jesse's eyes narrowed. If there was thunder, neither Red nor the boy seemed to notice. "So.. after a few week's worth of trying to get it right, I did it. I managed to poison a loaf of bread. Then I tried it on myself, almost died.. And now we're here."

"I thought poison didn't kill?"

Some shuffling. "I thought so too! But oh, would you look at that? It almost did."

"Then how come?" The boy sounded a little far away, and one of the footsteps stopped, along with the shuffling. "Apparently, in my efforts to make a potion of poison that'd be compatible with bread, I accidentally made the poison lethal."

The other pair of footsteps got louder, then the second one came back. "So when I ate the bread.."

"It almost killed you."

Red hummed.

"Huh."

"Yup."

There was silence, the cricket's cries and the pair's footsteps taking over. Suddenly, a louder clap of thunder came through. Then the boy spoke, "Wait, was that weird potion in your lab the poison?"

"The green and red potion? Yup, that's the one."

"Why do you still have it?"

Shuffling. "I don't know, really. I mean, if it's that lethal, then.. who knows? Maybe I'll need it in the future."

Jesse frowned, crossing his arms and shifting his weight. Meanwhile, the boy in the recording stifled a laugh. "Is this Jesse planning a murder that I'm hearing right now?"

Red laughed, what she said catching Jesse and Reuben by surprise. "Aiden!" The two laughed, and it sounded like one of them was shoved (playfully, probably). "No! Of course I'm not gonna murder anyone, silly."

Jesse's eyes narrowed.

"I don't think I can trust whatever food you give me anymore." The boy - Aiden - said, still jokingly. Red continued to laugh.

"Oh my god."

The recording cut immediately after that, in the middle of the two laughing. It played again, this time with the sound of rain in the foreground. It seemed to be getting stronger. "We're here." A now calm Red declared. There were some footsteps, but only hers. It was first on wet grass, and then stone. The sound echoed in whatever building the girl was in. Another pair of footsteps echoed behind her, but she didn't say anything about it. The familiar sound of a portal came in, the girl then saying, "It's still lit!"

The footsteps got louder, until they stopped completely. There was a pause, the rain getting louder and the faint sound of thunder rolling in the background. Then there was some shuffling, and Red said, "So uh.. see you?"

More shuffling, then Aiden saying, "Yeah. See you." A pat on the shoulder, then he said teasingly, "Don't poison anyone!"

Red chuckled. More shuffling. "Don't worry, I won't."

The pair exchanged 'take care's, and, judging by the sounds, Aiden walked through the portal, to… wherever. 'Does it have something to do with the portal hallway Thief talked about?'

"That's where the tape ends." Reuben said. He searched for the eject button, found it, and pressed it. The jukebox then spit both discs out. The boy took them as Jesse added them to his notes.

"That Aiden guy is the one in the portrait outside, right?" The boy asked, looking at Jesse curiously. He nodded.

"Yeah. The male counterpart of Ava."

Reuben's eyes widened. "Wait, what?!"

Jesse nodded as he looked over his notes. Satisfied, he kept it in his pocket. Reuben handed him the discs, which he also kept.

"Wait, but," Reuben sputtered, "If Red's your counterpart, and Aiden's Ava's, then… How are they getting along?" He asked in bewilderment.

Jesse only shrugged.

* * *

 **A/N: A/N: guys i just remembered. jesse is 19 years old. as in. non. he's nineteen. and i think justice is too.**

 **... :'D**

 **Some hints for the codes:**

 **1) If there is a code in a chapter, the hints for that code are going to be in that chapter.**

 **2) "we have a murder board! (sort of)" and "a brief change of scenery" are the only chapters that have the names of the ciphers of the codes in that chapter. Chapter 10 is obvious. Chapter 9, you'll have to hunt for.**

 **3) Some of the codes have two layers.**

 **Review Replies!**

 **BeliTheGhoti0304 - [Thanks!] [No, actually. It's two weeks until schools starts. Although it's mere days now. -_-] [I already told you that, so I don't think I have to repeat myself...] [Aw. Darn.]**

 **jmvoyles1126 - [Thank you! It means a lot~] [The hints are up there. :3] [Same..] [Hello! You're at the next chapter!]**

 **Please review! Reviews motivate me! ...except when they're not nice.. in that case..**

 **..**

 **Anyhow! I'll see you in the next chapter! I hope you have a good day. :3**

 **I hope I make more progress before school starts. hhhh -_-**


	12. three steps forward and back again

_vr pxfk iru wkdw sodq._

* * *

"Just listen to the other discs." Jesse told Reuben, "I'll check out the bookshelf."

The boy nodded and got to work, walking over to the next disc while Jesse stepped back, surveying the rest of the room. He ended up looking at the wall with the doors.

On each side of the double doors was a banner, with two members of the Order of the Stone on each one (save for Ivor). Magnus and Ellegaard were in one banner, with Soren and Gabriel in the other. Above the dark oak doors was a clock reading 'May 21, Δ50 - 5:10 AM.'

Nothing interesting here.

Jesse turned away and walked closer to the bookshelf. A depressing tune, from one of the discs, most likely, began to play behind him as he examined the titles. The Psychology of Mobs, How a Monster Thinks, What are Creepers made of? Jesse frowned, scanning all the other titles. 'All of these books are on mobs.' Besides that, there wasn't anything else.

With nothing else to do, Jesse looked behind him to see what Reuben was doing. There was now a third empty frame, 'Disc 2 - Track 19' written where the disc would have been placed. Frowning, Jesse walked over. "It's not a voice recording this time." Reuben said, pointing out the obvious. "The title makes it look like it's from a soundtrack, but what soundtrack?"

Jesse said nothing, instead looking down at one of the double chests. After checking and confirming that it wasn't a trapped chest, he opened it. Inside the chest were a bunch of books. They were old and worn. Judging by the titles, they were all guides. Guides on redstone, mining, construction...

' _And why are these so_ old _?_ '

He picked up one of the books, surprised to see that it wasn't dusty despite its age, and turned to the publication page for a year, only to find…

Γ14.

Jesse blinked.

' _You can't be serious._ '

It was serious.

Checking the other books had, in fact, confirmed that most (if not all) of the books were published in the years Γ14 to Γ16. His eyes narrowed in suspicion and confusion. He took out his notebook and quickly added the books to his notes. With that done, he pocketed the book and closed the chest shut.

The track ended as Jesse stepped away from the chest. He waited for Reuben to return it and get the next disc (which had a red inner circle) before checking the next chest. The next track, a simple, soothing tune on piano, began to play as he searched through it. Blank papers, brushes, and paints…? ' _What are these doing here_?' He checked all the brushes and cans for anything- a name or a marking, but found nothing.

' _I should take note of this._ ' Jesse thought as he took out his notebook. The tune on the jukebox began to pick up pace as he took it out, quickly noting his findings. The paint materials done, he looked up at the discs. The previous disc, Disc 2 - Track 19, had an orange inner circle. 'So pink for the poison incident, green for Aiden, and orange for Track 19.' After writing all of that down, he looked at the next frame, which had C6H4Cl2 written on it.

Odd.

The next frame had a disc with a white and purple striped inner circle. Tucking his journal and quill under his arm, Jesse stepped forward and carefully took it off the frame to see what was written.

'Mellohi.'

He tilted his head, curious, then turned to the jukebox, only realizing now that the previous track was still playing, and at this point, the pace was twice as fast as it was the last time he heard it. "It's not done yet?" He asked Reuben. The boy shrugged.

"Apparently." He looked over at the disk in Jesse's hand, then at the empty frame. "What's 'Mellohi?'"

Jesse held the disc up. "Only one way to find out."

Reuben blinked, then looked down at the jukebox. Catching on, he shrugged and ejected the disc, stopping the song short. As Reuben stepped back, Jesse inserted the disc into the slot. Immediately after that, a jazz tune began to play. It was slow and sinister, yet calm and somewhat melancholy at the same time. Jesse and Reuben exchanged confused glances.

"Creepy…" Reuben mouthed. Jesse shrugged as he took out his journal, adding the other discs to his notes.

The song lasted only for a minute before it stopped. Reuben ejected it, and it popped out. The boy then stared at the two discs in his hand, confused. "What could this mean?" He asked Jesse, looking up at him. Jesse frowned.

"I know just as much as you do, Reuben. Although," He tapped the edge of the notebook, "Those two recordings… do you think..?"

He trailed off, biting his lip as he narrowed his eyes at the discs. If Red was in both of them, could that mean...?

"Do I think.. what?"

Jesse shook his head. "Nevermind. I was wrong, forget I said anything. Uh.." He glanced around the room quickly, searching for something to change the topic. His eyes landed on the frames. Specifically, the red disc. "Should we keep the discs, or leave them here?"

"Uhm…" Reuben bit his lip. "Keep them, I guess?"

"Alright then."

The boy kept his notebook, took the remaining disc from the frame and the other two in Reuben's hands, and kept them in his inventory. "Where to now?"

"Upstairs." Jesse walked on to the doors and pushed them open, "Come on."

After checking, Jesse and Reuben had found that the hall on Gill's side of the wall lead to the outside, while the hall on Maya's side led to a staircase going up. Naturally, they went down the Maya hall. (But not after opening the door in the Gill hall briefly, then closing it immediately after when Reuben thought he heard a zombie.)

Anyway, the second floor.

Right next to the entrance of the staircase was another small nook, just like the one at the library. Except there was more space this time, and it had a tall window right next to the couch. Across the couch was a small coffee table. To Jesse's right was a small space that led to another room, the door on the same wall of the entrance to the stairs. Walking forward and turning right would reveal a door to something labelled the 'Reading Room,' and going past that would reveal a hall leading to four other rooms- with two doors on each side. At the end of the wall was a single bookcase, a potted plant, and small window. The floor and walls were made of wooden planks.

"Which room do we go through first?" Reuben asked.

Jesse wordlessly went to the Reading Room.

* * *

If everyone in the group were to be in the Reading Room, it might have been cramped with only a small enough space for one person to walk through the whole room. The room was lit with redstone lamps hanging from the ceiling. There was nothing directly across the door, but leaning in, you would see a single desk and two chairs on opposite sides. On each side of the desk and chairs were paintings.

Curious, Jesse walked in the room to examine the paintings, Reuben following in and closing the door behind him. He walked off, presumably to look at the rest of the room.

The first painting depicted Petra falling down what seemed to be a dark pit, the vines surrounding her illuminated by the torch in her hand. She was wearing armor that, in Jesse's opinion, almost looked like something someone in the Order of the Stone would wear.

…Then again.

This painting also had a plaque below it, just like the one in the office. "Just My Luck" was the title, with the name 'apati3' written below it. _'A different painter, then?_ ' He searched the painting for a signature.

"AN" was what he found. ' _Must be._ ' He looked at the spot of the signature, then back down at the plaque. ' _Kind of a weird name,_ ' He thought as he straightened up. He stepped away from the painting and glanced back at Reuben, who was reading one of the books from the shelf, before looking at the other painting and walking over to it.

It was a picture of Olivia, who was holding her head and hair in distress. Her hands and forearms were purple, the color fading into simple splotches and spots as it went further down her arm. The plaque below had, written in the same style as the previous two plaques, the title "Withered" and the name 'Sketch' printed on it.

Jesse frowned, remembering the signatures of the first two paintings, then looked back up at the painting. His eyes narrowed as he studied it, and he stepped closer.

Just like the last two, there was, indeed, a signature. It was "DF" this time. ' _But that doesn't match the name 'Sketch,' does it…?_ '

On that thought, Jesse took out his notebook and jotted everything down; a list of the titles of the paintings, their corresponding signatures, and the names in the plaques. He closed it and kept both it and quill, turning around to investigate the rest of the room. "What did you find, Reuben?"

"Huh?" The boy turned to him, a book in his hands. (Was it the same one?) Reuben glanced down at the book, then the shelves, then Jesse. "Oh. Nothing interesting... besides the fact that there's really no specific category for the books." Jesse raised a brow. "I mean, look…" He stepped back and gestured to the section he was standing in front of as the older boy stepped closer. "This book I have is horror, right? Look- this one is Sci-fi, this one's a cookbook, this one's mythology… None of it is sorted." Reuben finished.

"Odd." Jesse muttered. His eyes scanned the shelf, stopping when he decided to just take a random book. So he did, taking out a plain, brown book among plenty of others just like it.

"What's that one?" Reuben asked, standing on his tip-toes to see what Jesse was reading.

Jesse's eyes narrowed. "Another journal.. It's kind of old, though."

"How old?"

Without saying anything, Jesse showed Reuben the top of the page he was currently on, which read "October 28, Γ99"

"Oh." Reuben squinted as he looked down the page, "The handwriting isn't very good."

"Well, it's not as bad as yours, so I think I should be able to read it."

" _Hey._ "

"Sorry. I'm gonna try to read it now."

Reuben stepped down and back, going back to reading the book he had in his hand. "You do that."

The boy wasn't wrong- the handwriting was atrocious. The person who wrote this must have either been in a rush, spawned only recently, or just had horrible writing in general. The fact that their grammar and spelling was at least decent alleviated the whole thing, somewhat.

" _'It's almost Halloween! And you know what that means? LET'S TALK ABOUT MYTHS!'_ " The first line read. (Clearly, the person who wrote this was a mature adult.

Clearly.)

" _'So- Herobrine. 'The Man with the White Eyes', he's also known as. No one knows how he came around to becoming who he is. Some say that he's a demon, and that he's always been like that. Others say that he's a personification of people's fears, and that he's just a hallucination that manifests when people are under the influence of 'things.' Then there are those who just don't believe in him in general and think he's just a spawn's tale for Halloween. But the thing is, this guy's been around ever since Alpha! Maybe even before that!'_ "

Jesse frowned, then scanned the rest of the entry. The rest of it was just the writer babbling about theories on who Herobrine was and 'witness accounts' on the guy.

In other words, nothing really interesting or important. (Although, it was odd that he just so happened to land on the page about the entity that he happened to meet just last night. No way was that a coincidence, right?)

The boy returned the book to the shelf just as Reuben closed the book shut. Jesse blinked, then looked down at him. He opened his mouth to ask what happened, but then Reuben said, "Wine scares me."

"...Okay."

Jesse twisted to look around. Aside from the unsorted bookshelves, there wasn't anything else but the window to the left, and on the wall beside 'Just My Luck' hung a lone clock, and that was it.

"I think this is all there is here." He said as he looked out the window. Beyond the darkness, he could see the faint outline of tree- wait, where's that light coming from?! He leaned forward to look, to see that the lights from the other mansion's rooms were seeping in through the windows. He blinked. ' _Oh._ '

"So do we leave?" Reuben asked.

"Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

The next room they investigated was the room right next to the Reading Room.

Apparently, according to Reuben, each room was supposed to have a light switch next to the door. After finding it and flipping it, Jesse managed to get a good look at the room- a bedroom. And it was a rather large bedroom for one person. Under a painting at the corner was a bed, a crafting table sitting beside it and a burnt out torch hanging above it. On one side of the room was a desk-bookcase with a mirror above it, and on the other side was another book shelf. Directly beside the door was a jukebox and a clock.

"Are all the rooms like this?" He wondered aloud. He glanced behind him when he heard footsteps, to see Reuben open the door to check the room directly opposite.

"Yeah, pretty much." He said.

Jesse glanced around the room before he went to get a closer look at the painting. "What are you doing?" He heard Reuben ask from the other room.

"Looking at the paintings!"

He finally got to the corner of the room and leaned in as much as he could to examine it. It was a picture of a girl who looked somewhat similar to Thief.. from what he could tell, at least; the picture only had the girl form her back. Her hair was longer, too, and- hold up, did she have six arms? The black edges of the picture almost made it hard to see, but yes, the girl did have six arms.

Which was weird.

"Hybrid" was written in the plaque beneath the painting, with the name 'Ariza Luca' under it. And speaking of…

The signature in this painting, which took Jesse a while to find thanks to the dark lighting, was "AT."

Jesse's eyes narrowed.

Definitely not a match, this time.

"Hey, Reuben?" He called, taking his notebook and quill out.

"Yeah?"

The boy stepped away from the painting, walking to the door as he wrote in his notebook. "There's a painting in that other room, right?" He left the bedroom and went to the one, where Reuben was.

"Yeah."

The room was more or less the same as the last one, burnt out torch, useless window, and the odd mirror- it was all there. Even the painting above the bed. Reuben was looking at said painting as Jesse walked in, glancing behind him for a moment before looking back. "What about the paintings?"

"They've gotta mean something, right?"

The painting in this bedroom was a group photo of six girls standing in a circle, a sort of spotlight on each of them, save for the lone redhead at the back. The painting was titled "The First Guests"; The name below read 'Gommie.'

It didn't take as long as the others to find the signature in this painting, but when he did, Jesse's confusion and suspicion only increased.

"HE" it read.

"But they're just paintings." Reuben said from behind him.

"If they're really 'just paintings,'" Jesse countered as he stepped back and wrote what he just found in his notebook, "then explain the paintings of Olivia and Petra in the Reading Room."

Reuben frowned, then conceded. "Okay, fair po- oh, where are you going?"

The older of the two had run out the room. "To see the other paintings!"

With an exasperated sigh, Reuben followed after him, being careful to turn off the lights and close the door behind him on his way out.

* * *

The other two paintings also had someone in the group in them. Somewhat.

The first one was another one of Petra, except she was… very different, one could say. One of the first things you'd notice if you looked at it was the fact that she was in very red, very different armor (both Jesse and Reuben had recoiled in discomfort upon seeing it). Her eyes glowed white in an eerily familiar way, and her mouth was shaped in a maniacal grin. "Among the White Eyes" was the title; the name, 'PurpleGirl.'

The second was of Lucy (sort of) and a girl in blue with a band in her dark hair. Lucy herself was in attire different from her portrait in the other mansion (Jesse was gonna name those things- he's tired of the word). She wasn't in a vest anymore- in fact, she was wearing Lukas's clothes. Leather jacket, striped shirt.. she also lacked a stetson. This one was titled "A Gender Incident." The name below it was 'Ghoti.'

The one other common thing between those two paintings? The names in the plaques didn't match the signatures, either. The signatures were "RP" and "AR" respectively.

Oh, but there was more. Reuben mentioned that there were similar paintings in the other mansion. In the one he and Petra stayed in, there was a painting of some figures cloaked in different colors running through the forest. The title, Reuben remembered as "Elements"; 'RapidSammi' was the name written in the plaque (something that took Reuben a little while to remember). Then there was the other painting in Axel's room; it was a picture of Axel, Olivia, Lukas, Petra, a boy who looked a little like Eli, and some other people sitting in front of some glowing, white thing. The painting was titled "Movie Mode," and the name was 'Toni.'

"And that's all you know?"

Reuben shrugged. "I didn't notice any weird signatures."

Jesse hummed. "Yeah, you might not notice them unless you were specifically looking for them…"

"So what now?"

Jesse kept his notebook and quill and left the Lucy room. "Now, we go look at those other paintings!"

* * *

 **A/N: I hate how short these chapters are smh. Anyway, it's my first weekend of the school year. yay. /s**

 **I have to get to work on fixing the next chapter and continuing to write the one after that. AND THEN I still have that.. uh.. that other story.. to continue planning... and making...**

 **... GOOD THING I HAVE A LONG WEEKEND HAHAHAHA**

 **...I was gonna say something about the referenced fics, but I'm not sure what I should even say...**

 **...where to find them? I guess? So "A World Unwound" (from the last chapter) can be found in Wattpad. "Hybrid," "Movie Mode," "Withered," "Elements," and "A Gender Incident" can be found here (although I think you already knew that xD), "Just My Luck" can be found in deviantART, and "Among the White Eyes" can be found on YouTube. Their respective owner's names are written on the plaques, just as Jesse read them. :3 There'll be three more (i think) in the next one, but that's about it.**

 **Review Replies!**

 **BeliTheGhoti0304 - [:3]**

 **NoItsBecky - [Well, you're the first person to specifically bring up the multiverse (I think), so... not sure what the answer to your question is. Sorry. :/ What's got you confused about the multiverse stuff, though?]**

 **Hey! Question- since majority of the characters in MCSM don't have surnames, do you know any good one for Otto? ...Huh? Why am I asking? ...Reasons.**

 **I just need a good surname that wouldn't sound silly in a professional setting please :'D Jenkins (/tries to keep from laughing), Reyes, and Gonzalez have already been suggested to me, so don't suggest those, please. xD**

 **Have a great day! :D  
**


	13. painting is a pain

**school is the worst, saturdays are stupid, i have to study for some quizzes, it's only the third week of school, and this is the shortest chapter  
**

 **kill me**

* * *

"Wait, why don't we look here first?"

"Look where?"

Reuben pointed at the room by the stairs. "Come on, it won't hurt to check.."

Jesse shrugged. Taking that as a 'go ahead,' Reuben went and opened the door, Jesse following after him. After flipping the light switch and stepping inside, Reuben said, "It's a storage room."

"How do you know?"

Jesse followed Reuben inside to find himself in a narrow room, with one side for navigating through it, and another lined with double chests. The boy glanced around as Reuben opened a chest. "It's just like the one back in the other mansion."

"There was a storage room at the other mansion?"

The younger of the two nodded as he stood up and moved to another chest. Jesse looked down at the one next to him, and opened it up. Inside the chest was a bunch of blankets, pillows, wool… it was filled with materials for beds. "Food, clothes…" He heard Reuben say. He looked up to where the boy was, to see him making his way to the corner of the room. He stood up. "There weren't this many chests before, though."

"Maybe there's just more stuff?"

If Reuben said anything, Jesse didn't hear, as the boy had disappeared around the corner. Jesse followed after him all the way to the end of the narrow room. The younger boy opened the chest as Jesse made it to him, and what they found inside caught both of them by surprise (mostly Reuben, though).

There were painting in the chest. Unfinished paintings, drafts that never came to be, and empty canvases filled every space possible. "Paintings?"

Jesse knelt down and picked one of the unfinished ones up. Only the top half was finished, browns and reds being the only other color there, with some gold and blue. It was a picture of the Ivor guy and the Harper woman from the main room portraits in the middle of a duel, both of them in armor.

 _…It didn't seem like there was any signature._

"None of them are finished, though." Reuben noted. He picked up one of the other paintings (or, sketches)- this one of Lukas and a girl with long hair in a dress, also in a duel. Peering into the chest, Jesse could see a pile of canvases with sketches and botched paintings of some sort of green and black wolf. Odd.

Jesse set the painting he had beside him while Reuben lifted the others, giving each of them nothing but the briefest of glances. "It must be the scrap pile."

Reuben hummed. "Yeah, probably." He stopped sifting through the chest and prepared to close it when suddenly, Jesse pushed it back open and lifted the portraits. The younger of the two yelped in surprise. "What are you doing?!"

"I wanna see each of them!" He said stubbornly. He heard Reuben sigh and facepalm as he went through each painting. He heard footsteps soon after- he must be looking through the rest of the room.

Aside from the wolf pictures, there were also portraits of other people. Tons of them. Unfinished, sketched, botched, and some even actually finished. Why they weren't hanging in the mansion's walls, Jesse could only wonder.

He went through a few more, until he made it to the last one.

It was a painting of a boy who looked a lot like Eli. His eyes were green, like emeralds.

Just like Thief's eyes.

Except his hair wasn't 'spiky' like Eli's. It was fluffy, and a bit more like Logic's. Messy, and unorganized.

The question now was: Why was it here? What did it mean?

With a confused frown, he kept the portrait deep in his inventory. Then he got up, kept the other paintings, and closed the chest shut. After taking a moment to note the portrait down in his book, he walked to the other side of the room, where Reuben was waiting.

"Can we move on, now?" He asked. Jesse nodded.

"Yeah, let's go."

* * *

Just as the two were about to leave the mansion (which Jesse had decided to name Caesar, much to Reuben's confusion), Jesse looked back, his eyes landing on the doors to the other room in the lobby.

The kitchen. Logic had mentioned it earlier that morning when he asked what it was.

"Hold on," He said as he backed away from the door, "I wanna check something real quick."

"Check what?"

Jesse went ahead to the kitchen, forcing Reuben to sigh and follow after him.

* * *

The kitchen wasn't very big. Well, it was, but not as big as the other rooms. Probably 3/4ths the size of a bedroom.

In the middle of it was a large table, or rather, counter, presumably for preparing food. Cauldrons and crafting tables were lined up beneath empty frames at the right, with furnaces on top of furnaces lining the left. At the other side of the room were three double chests. The whole room was lit with torches, which was rather redundant in Jesse's opinion, considering the furnaces were still burning.

"Does this room have a light switch?" Reuben wondered as they walked in. They closed the doors behind them and checked, only to find none.

"'Guess not." Jesse mumbled, before he looked at the still-cooking furnaces.

"Do you think the food came from there?" He heard Reuben ask. He twisted to look at the boy, who was pointing at the empty frames above the cauldrons and chests. Glancing back at the furnaces, he shrugged.

"That's probably the case. Either the night watch did it, or Logic and Olivia."

Reuben crossed his arms. "Does any food take so long to cook?"

"I have no idea."

Jesse went on to the check the double chests. There were three- the first was filled with raw and uncooked food; the second, bottles filled with water. The third was filled with potions- lots of them. Blues, greens and pinks filled the chest; half were enchanted, while the others weren't.

"Why's there so much water here?"

Jesse turned to Reuben, who was studying the cauldrons to the side. "There's water?" He wondered aloud as he walked over.

"Yeah, but it's not being used."

The boy looked down the cauldron to see that yes, the cauldron was filled with water. To the brim.

"And look-" Reuben tugged at Jesse's sleeve and dragged him to the crafting tables, "Feel the table."

Jesse raised a brow as he put his hands on the top of the table. It certainly felt used; used crafting tables tend to be scratched and rough.

They did not, however, usually have dust on them.

He frowned, feeling the sand-like dust brush against his fingers, and, slowly, he picked it up. The orange light of the torches made it difficult to see, but he's been around this dust so much, especially during building competitions, it's kind of hard to not recognize it.

His eyes narrowed. "Why's there redstone dust on the crafting tables of the kitchen?"

"Exactly what I was thinking." Said Reuben.

Jesse straightened and headed to the door, the younger boy following suit. "Come on. We can think about that later."

This time they actually went to the left mansion. Or, as Jesse now called it… "Atbash." He declared, "I'm calling this mansion 'Atbash.'"

Reuben blinked at Jesse, confused. "Isn't that one of those ciphers you keep using?"

"Yep."

"Why are you naming it after a cipher? No, better question," He stopped at the gate just as Jesse pulled it open, "Why are you naming the mansions?"

"'Cause I don't wanna keep referring to them as the left mansion, the right mansion, and the middle mansion. You say the word 'mansion' too many times. It's annoying."

There was a pause before Reuben decided not to question anything and move on with the investigation.

* * *

 _Tfi Jitikteri jej et._  
 _Jyz't tibb mzoyzi, tfysgf._  
 _Dsut tibb Amuyz tfmt "Xmxivhmki eu jimj."_  
 _Tfmzcu._

 _(pna lbh xrrc n frperg?)_  
 _\- znfba_

* * *

The lights in the Atbash gallery were already on; inside, they found Olivia and Logic. The two were discussing something (they talked to each other a lot, Jesse noticed) by one of the paintings at the far side of the wall. Or rather, they were. When Jesse and Reuben entered the room, the pair was already looking at them.

"Hey Olivia, Logic!" Reuben greeted them. The two returned the greeting, a little more enthusiastically than he thought they would (that's not saying that they were very enthusiastic, but… never mind).

"Have you guys found anything?"

The two looked at each other, Olivia raising a brow as if she was asking Logic something silently. Logic shrugged. "No," Olivia finally said as she put both her hands on her hips, "But we found a lack of something."

Jesse glanced at the paintings as he and Reuben walked to the others. The painting after 'Assembly Required' had a picture of a girl in brown armor running to this flying, monstrous blob of black and purple, with purple beams of light everywhere. Some sort of block was tucked under her arm. The painting after that was of a boy in green armor hugging a pig, with nothing but darkness surrounding them. As he made it to the Logic pair, he could see that the painting they were looking at, titled "Order up!" was of a city floating in the sky in chaos. Rain was pouring, lightning was flashing in the sky, and _freaking ghasts_ were flying around the place.

His eyes narrowed at the painting for a moment, then he looked back at Olivia and Logic. "Shoot."

"We don't have portraits." Logic crossed his arms. "You must have noticed, right?"

"If by 'we' you mean 'everyone named Jesse,'" The boy held his hip with one hand, "Then yeah, I've noticed."

Reuben tilted his head. "Maybe the guy who painted everything just.. didn't plan to paint you? I mean," He looked up at Jesse, "You were looking through the scrapped paintings, right? Did you find any of your portraits?"

Jesse shook his head, "No. There weren't any portraits."

"Wait," The two looked at Olivia, "What do you mean by 'scrapped paintings?"

Logic's brows furrowed, but the boy said nothing. "Oh, there was a chest in the storage room back there," Jesse pointed a thumb to his back, as if gesturing towards the other mansion, "with a ton of scrapped paintings."

"Sketches, screw ups.." Reuben tapped his chin in thought, "Some were just unfinished."

"And there weren't any paintings of us? At all?"

"None."

Olivia frowned. "That doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't paint us. They could have kept those paintings hidden and left the rest."

Logic held his chin in thought. "That's true," He said with a frown. His and Jesse's eyes met, the former in a somewhat accusatory glare.

' _What, you think I did that?_ '

The glare from the darker eyes hardened.

Not in the mood for a glaring contest, Jesse looked away and at the other paintings, his eyes widening and his mind forgetting Logic's glare upon seeing the one they were standing next to. The painting, titled "A Portal to Mystery," was of him in green and black armor standing next to Lukas, who was also in armor. Both of them were looking up at something; Lukas had his hands on his hips, and Jesse's arms were crossed. Wherever they were, it was dark, with only some faint orange lights ahead.

"So you guys haven't found anything else?" Olivia asked, bringing Jesse's attention back to the conversation. He shook his head.

"No. You?"

Logic let his hands drop to his sides. "Nothing on our end. We'd best keep looking."

"Yeah." With that, Jesse began to back away, waving. "See ya." He turned, only to stop in his tracks for a moment upon seeing the last two paintings.

"Access Denied," the first of the two, was a picture of Lukas and Petra, both in armor, with red eyes. Their faces were blank, their swords drawn, making the whole atmosphere of the painting foreboding.

' _'Access Denied,' indeed._ '

The second painting, "A Journey's End," almost made Jesse double over in shock.

It was a picture of a pink haired woman _larger than Axel_ plunging an axe into Petra's stomach. They seemed to be in an arena of some sort.

There really wasn't much else to it.

He blinked at the picture, opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. He glanced behind him briefly before heading to the stairs. "C'mon, Reub. Let's see those other paintings you were talking about."

"Coming!"

* * *

He'd never gotten a good look at the whole second floor the first time. At the side of the entrance to the stairs was a long cabinet, with very few ornaments decorating the counter top. Hanging above the bookcase was an oblong-shaped mirror, framed with decorative gold. Jesse gave the furniture a weird look as he climbed the staircase. Finally making it to the top of the stairs, he stopped at the cabinet and looked at the decorations- specifically, the odd little analog clock by the side. It was somewhat tall and tiny, and encased in decorative wood.

Weird.

He put the clock down as Reuben made it to the top of the stairs. "So which room first?" He asked him. The boy shrugged and pointed at the his and Petra's room. "There, I guess?"

So they went.

The room was only a little longer than the others. There was a bed on the side of the door, and another at the opposite end; both with a crafting table and a torch beside it. In between the two beds was a painting. To the side of the door was another jukebox, a clock, and an 'L' shaped bookshelf that extended to the side of the other bed.

"That's the painting." Reuben said as he entered the room. Jesse flipped the light switch before following him inside.

The painting was just like Reuben described. Figures in different colored cloaks running through a forest, an ocelot among them. Jesse frowned as he searched the painting for a signature.

"Do you see anything?"

 _As a matter of fact…_

Jesse pointed at the spot with the 'signature.' "There."

"'AD?'"

The older boy looked down at the plaque. "And it still doesn't match the name." He held his chin in thought as he glared at the signature, eyes narrowed. "So what's it supposed to mean?"

"Maybe it's a pen name?" Reuben wondered. "I mean, the one in the plaque. No one's really got a name with no space, right? 'RapidSammi?'"

Jesse hummed. "You have a point. Another one of the names had a number in it, and I doubt anyone's got a name with a number in it." He took out his journal and added the painting to the list, backing away slowly. "Let's look at the other one."

The other painting was, again, just like Reuben described. Everyone in the group plus a boy who resembled Eli looking at some glowing, white thing. With how bright everything was, Jesse had to wonder how the painter managed to hide the 'signature.'

If there even was a signature.

While he searched the painting for the signature, Jesse couldn't help but take a good look at the 'Eli' in the picture. His hair was short and, again, almost like Logic's and the boy in the scrapped portrait.

Whether this was important or not, Jesse couldn't tell.

Finding the signature had taken his mind off of the issue, for the time being.

"'OX?'"

Reuben crossed his arms, frowning. "Does it mean the animal 'ox,' or is it another signature?"

"It might just be another signature." Jesse said as he added 'Movie Mode' to the list of paintings, "I don't think 'RP' or 'DF' are animals."

The younger of the two frowned. "So, signature, then?"

The taller brunette closed the journal shut. "We don't exactly have anything else to call them."

"So what now?"

"Do you have anything else in mind?"

Reuben shook his head. A grin broke on Jesse's face. "Then come on!"

He headed straight for the door, Reuben following after a brief moment of confusion. "Where are we going?"

"We're gonna find out why it's so dark out!" Jesse said with excitement, stopping when he put his hand on the light switch. "Unless someone else already found out, that is." He shrugged, then turned the lights off and grabbed Reuben by his wrist. "To the backdoor!"

* * *

 **A/N: ffnet i hate you. word documents, i hate you. oh my god.  
**

 **In order, the paintings referenced in this fic, their authors, and where to find them-**

 **"The Broken Heart" - TheMaroonLightning - deviantART :: "POWER" - PrettyxThexArtist - deviantART :: "Broken Reality" - ComputerDragon - Wattpad :: "Elements" - RapidSammi - ffnet :: "Movie Mode" - Toni42 - ffnet**

 **although for whatever reason, Broken Reality was deleted. I literally have no idea why, I just found out today.**

 **Review Replies!**

 **Ariza Luca - [Yes. There's you. xD]**

 **BeliTheGhoti0304 - [You're welcome! ^_^] [AAA Thank you! Honestly, I can't see why you like this so much, but thank you! :3 It means a bunch!]**

 **question- if you were to be stuck in a room you can't get out of with any of the people in this fic for, say, an entire day, who would you prefer to be stuck with? fair warning: you can only choose to be stuck with one person.**

 **Have a good day! And summer, 'cause I know majority of you are from America. At least you don't have quizzes and lab activities to worry about.**

 **I'll see you in the next chapter!**


	14. punch! punch! punch!

**warning: this writing's v bad**

* * *

The two went through the gallery and the garden without much incident, which almost made Jesse wonder where everyone else was.

Almost.

So when they entered the main hall, they weren't very surprised to find it empty. What Jesse did find surprising, however, was that the kitchen doors were left ajar.

"Maybe someone just left it open." Reuben had suggested when he voiced his suspicion.

He wasn't convinced. So, much to his friend's chagrin, he went ahead and checked the kitchen. He pushed the door further open as he entered the dimly lit room, Reuben following behind him. "See anything?" Reuben asked as they walked in. Jesse walked by the crafting tables and cauldrons while Reuben went by the furnaces.

"Not yet…"

The room seemed to be dimmer than before, for some reason. He frowned, and glanced around at all the torches…

 _Bingo._

"Why are some of the torches missing?"

Reuben looked up from one of the chests and blinked at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

Jesse pointed at the torches. "Look, they were in a pattern, right? It was all even, one block apart." Reuben got up slowly as he looked at each torch. Jesse then twisted and pointed behind him. "So why are these missing?"

Without waiting for Reuben's response, he turned and grabbed the nearest torch, preparing to look around for anything that could be hidden in the darkness. He turned to look, only to spot something in his peripheral. Stopping, he looked back, then down.

A hole, right in the corner of the kitchen, and big enough to fit a person.

His brows furrowed, eyes narrowing as he kept his eyes on the hatch. "Did you find anything?" He asked Reuben, not taking his eyes off it.

"No." The younger boy said, "Why?"

"'Cause I have."

He twisted to look at Reuben, whose eyes were wide. Wordlessly, he looked back at the hatch and climbed down the ladder.

The climb down was long. Not very, but long all the same. It took them a little while, but they finally made it to the bottom of the hole. The boy jumped off the ladder from the last few steps, and looked around. The place wasn't that different from the 'stations' at the maze and the garden in that the only things lighting the place were torches. Whoever dug it out didn't bother changing the walls, so everything was just soil and some stone. He stepped away from the ladder as he heard Reuben get closer to the bottom of the ladder. From where he stood, there were two paths that extended from the ladder. One was short, and led to another hall; the other was long, but it eventually turned a right corner.

When Reuben finally arrived, he turned and asked, "So where should we go?"

"Why are you asking _me_?"

Jesse sighed, then turned for the shorter path. "Let's go this way, then."

So the two went.

Going through the shorter path led to another crossroads- left, or right. At the end of the left seemed to be a wall, but at the right was a ladder.

Jesse blinked, then tapped Reuben's shoulder to get his attention. "Come on!"

The two went down the right tunnel and to the ladder. The rest of it disappeared in the darkness as it went up.

"Where do you think it leads?" Reuben asked. Jesse bit his lip as he looked up. He raised the torch into the shaft to get a better look; from what he saw, it seemed like the ladder went as high up as the one they used earlier went down.

He frowned, then lowered the torch. "Try climbing up and see how far it goes," he turned to look at Reuben, "I'll keep watch down here."

"And what do I do if I reach the top?"

"If there's something blocking you and you can dig it away, that would be great."

Reuben frowned, then sighed. "Alright."

And so he climbed.

…

' _I forgot he dies._ '

Jesse frowned as he watched Reuben disappear as he climbed further up the ladder.

' _Why did he come with into the Witherstorm, anyway? Did he_ want _to die? Did he just want to come? But why?_ '

Shouldn't he have known how dangerous it would be?

' _Then again,_ ' Jesse reasoned, ' _the one in the journal, and with the others, apparently, was a pig. And last I checked, the intelligence of animals wasn't as great as a human's. Maybe Reuben won't be so stupid when it's our turn?_ '

After a moment of thinking it over, he shook his head. ' _Let's hope._ '

 _Crunch, crunch, crunch-_

Jesse blinked. He turned away from the ladder to look down the hall; squinting in confusion when he saw no one else there.

The footsteps continued, though. There seemed to be a pair of them.

Who could be down here?

"Hello?" He called out cautiously.

"Jess?" Reuben answered.

"Wasn't intended for you, Reuben."

"Oh."

"Non?"

The boy blinked again. So there _was_ someone else here, and it sounded like one of his male counterparts. "Are you Eli or Logic?"

"Logic. Where are you?"

Reuben had stopped climbing the ladder. "Logic's here?"

"Apparently." Jesse muttered, then he raised his voice. "I'm over here!"

Very specific.

The footsteps got faster, and Reuben continued up the ladder (still?!). After a short while, Logic and Olivia both made it to the hall. Jesse waved with his free hand. "Hey guys."

"How'd you get down here?"

"We left the doors open," Olivia deadpanned, glancing at Logic, "Remember?"

Logic blinked. "Oh."

Jesse glanced behind them. "So did you guys find anything down here? What is this place, anyway?"

"It's an underground network of tunnels. We haven't seen most of it, but," Logic pointed to the side. "There's this big door over there that we tried to open, but it wouldn't budge."

Olivia crossed her arms. "And we were just going to check the rest of the place when we heard you." She frowned, "Where's Reuben?"

"I'm up here!" He yelled, causing the pair to jump slightly in surprise. "And Jesse, I found the top!"

"Can you mine it?"

"Uh… Lemme try."

There was a thump, an 'oof!', and then some grunts accompanied by the sound of dirt being punched. Jesse glanced up at the hole Reuben climbed through, then at Logic and Olivia, both of whom were extremely confused. Jesse blinked, "You didn't see this ladder here?"

Both shook their heads.

"Hey, so I found the floor."

"Floor?"

"It's…" A pause, "It's wood. Uh…" The sound of a flame coming to life was muffled, "I think it's dark oak?"

Jesse's brows furrowed. "Can you mine _that_?"

Wood getting punched was the response to his question. After a few moments, it broke, followed by Reuben's surprised yelp and light streaming into the hole.

"What is it?"

"It's the main room!" Reuben grunted, then climbed down.

Olivia's hands dropped to her sides. "The main room?"

The boy in pink finally reached the bottom of the ladder, brushing dust away from his hands once he got to the ground. "Yeah. It's a secret passage into the main room." He looked down briefly at his hands before up at Logic and Olivia. "Hey! You guys mentioned something about a door?"

The pair blinked, before they shook their heads. "Yeah. We can show you, if you want."

"Sure!"

They followed the pair to the door, which was at the end of a spacious tunnel. It was large, and expensive, made of quartz and _diamonds and gold and what the hell_ -

Jesse's mouth fell open, eyes widening upon seeing the door. Logic glanced at him and breathed a laugh, "We had the same reaction." He looked at the older boy, blinking. Then he closed his mouth, pursed his lips, and looked between Olivia and Reuben; the latter seemed to have a similar reaction.

He frowned and stepped closer, pushing against the door. "You said it wouldn't budge?"

"Not one bit." Olivia said, "It's probably blocked with redstone, but knowing that, there's still no way for us to find the button or switch that opens it."

Jesse twisted to look at her. "Not without guessing randomly, right?"

Logic nodded and crossed his arms. "Should we check the rest of this tunnel?"

" _Where did they get diamonds and gold?!_ " Reuben said suddenly in disbelief, earning him confused and startled stares. He blinked. "What? It's a valid question!"

Jesse pursed his lips, then nodded, and turned back to Logic. "Actually, Reuben and I were gonna investigate the back side of the house. Past the back door?"

"Oh."

Olivia shrugged. "We can just tell you about what we'll find later, then."

No one else was in the Caesar mansion- the first floor, anyway, from what Jesse and Reuben saw; and the two made their way to the back door without incident.

"How do you know there aren't any zombies out here?" Reuben asked, his tone laced with fear. He hid behind Jesse as the older boy stepped out the door and into the dark 'backyard.' Jesse gave Reuben a weirded out look before taking his torch out and moving forward.

"You know that zombies aren't exactly the quiet type, right?" He whispered, "If there _are_ zombies here, I'm not hearing them."

"They can be silent when they want to be! It's happened once or twice, right?"

Jesse sighed, and stopped, then glanced behind him. "Reuben."

"What?"

"There are no zombies here. That's final."

Reuben frowned. "Yeah, sure. Famous last words."

Jesse rolled his eyes, then looked towards the dark forest ahead of the small clearing. "I'll take that chance if it means us finding out why there's no sun out here."

"Do you even have a weapon?"

Frowning, Jesse took out his scythe, the purple and blue glow making Reuben squint and cover his eyes from the sudden light. "That's a _hoe_ , Jesse."

"No, it's a _scythe_."

"It's a glorified hoe!"

Jesse only blew a raspberry, deciding not to say anything in response. So the two continued on, Reuben bringing out his torch as they entered the forest (although he kept it after Jesse warned him about the both of them burning out their only sources of light). Their walk was void of conversation, with not even the sound of cicadas or crickets to fill the silence.

So they continued.

"So how's your life so far?"

Jesse frowned at Reuben. "Are you serious?" The younger boy sputtered, making Jesse once again turn away and roll his eyes.

"We haven't exactly had any conversation for, what, twenty minutes?"

The boy blinked and briefly glanced at Reuben in disbelief. "It's only been twenty minutes?!"

He shrugged. "I dunno! Has it been longer than that?"

"It certainly felt like it!"

Jesse gave Reuben a half-lidded glance before he continued forward. ' _At this rate, we're not gonna find anything…_ ' He glanced behind him, trying to recall the path he and Reuben took, and saw only the trees in the darkness. ' _At least we've only been walking in a straight line._ '

Note to self: It's easy to get lost in the woods.

Biting his lip, he turned back and looked around as he walked, waving the torch around and extending it as far as he could to see. Nothing… nothing… nothing…

…Something.

Or a lack thereof.

It should be noted that the trees in this forest were close together, which forced Reuben and Jesse to walk in single file for most of their walk. Which was cause for some trouble, considering they had to avoid tripping over above-ground roots in near-complete darkness with only one source of light; one source of light which, by the way, was slowly burning out.

But that's beside the point; the point is, there were a lot of trees here.

So the fact that there seemed to be less trees in this area was… slightly alarming.

He frowned, then walked faster, ignoring Reuben's "Jesse, wait!" He walked, faster, until it turned into a run, the dozens of trees around him almost whipping past.

And then there wasn't any.

Jesse stopped in his tracks, breathing heavily as he took a look at his surroundings. Behind him, he could hear Reuben's run ceasing, the boy panting between questions as he caught up to Jesse.

"There's a wall." He said simply.

"What?"

He extended his hand out and touched the wall, walking closer to inspect it. It was a mix of black and white, the texture awfully coarse and reminding him of a much more irritating version of sand. He frowned. "It's a wall," He repeated, "But…"

Reuben walked up to him and felt the wall as well, a small gasp of surprise escaping his lips when he felt the blocks. "Isn't this- Isn't this bedrock?"

Jesse bit his lip as he scraped bits of the wall away. He looked down at his hands, now covered in bits of a stone-like material. "I think it is."

' _But why? Why is there bedrock here,_ how _is there bedrock here?_ '

The younger of the two seemed to share the sentiment. "I thought bedrock couldn't be mined?"

"It can _now_ , apparently." He mumbled. He looked down at his free hand, experimentally balling it up into a fist and opening it up again.

"Don't tell me you're actually gonna try," Reuben said with a frown.

The boy in black raised his fist, "Alright, I won't tell-"

And he punched the wall.

A sore and bleeding hand was what Jesse was returning to the mansions with.

…Well, that and some new information, but the hand was at front and center in his mind right now.

"What made you think that that was a good idea?!"

The boy grimaced, the thought of actually doing so because of a mere scolding from _Reuben_ coming up, then disappearing just as it came; he was more concerned with his red hand than anything else.

Reuben was holding up his torch, Jesse's having burnt out a couple of minutes ago, and lighting their way back. All the while during their walk back, Reuben was voicing his disbelief and Jesse was wiping all the blood on his right with his left while trying to avoid hitting the splinters.

"You make it sound like I jumped into a pool of lava. Which I didn't."

"Yeah, but you punched _bedrock_. Which, by the way, can't be mined!"

Jesse sighed. "Yeah, but there's a whole wall there. You'd think if there were that you could mine it, right?"

Reuben only grumbled in response.

"How's your hand?" He asked after a long silence, holding out the torch between them to get a good look.

Jesse frowned at the splinters still in his hand. Then he looked down at his blood-soaked palm and, with a grunt, wiped it on his shirt, earning a disgusted yelp from Reuben. "Dude, what the hell?!"

He looked up from his shirt, now smeared with his blood, and at Reuben. "What?"

Reuben gestured wildly at his shirt, sputtering. Jesse rolled his eyes. "I can get a change of clothes, it's fine."

"Yeah, but…" Reuben shook his head, "Whatever. But how's your hand?"

The boy then had a splintered fist nearly punch his face, causing him to flinch and lean back. Jesse bit his lip as he looked down at his hand, wincing when he did so. "It's fine."

Reuben's disgusted expression turned into a frown.

"Sure it is."

When they finally made it back, Eli was waiting for them at the door, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed and his eyes in a hard glare. Jesse gave him a grin and a cheery "Hello!" while Reuben smiled sheepishly, his own greeting a little more meek than anything. But Eli didn't respond to their greetings, instead letting his emerald eyes look between the torch in Reuben's hand and Jesse's bloody appearance. His eyes narrowed.

"Two hours, and this is what you come back with?"

The Nonchalance pair blinked. "We've been gone for two hours?"

Eli tilted his head so that it leaned against the door frame. "No, you've been gone for forty." He paused, then glanced behind him, as if he were looking at the clock. "Actually, it's two and a half." He turned back to them. "So you went into the woods, stayed there for two and a half hours, and came back like you've just killed someone."

Jesse opened and closed his hand into a fist, but stopped midway when he still felt the pain from the splinters. He let it go limp. "For your information, Reuben and I actually found something useful. But," his cheerful smile turned into a smirk, "We're not gonna tell anyone until we all meet back at the main room. Now, if you'll excuse us…" He walked forward, Reuben following after him soon after, and through the entrance, Eli moving slightly to let them in. "I've gotta get a change of clothes and some bandages."

Eli kept his eyes on the pair until they turned the hall and disappeared.

* * *

 **A/N: lol i forgot i had this here wow**

 **anyways, uh... this thing's old. crap.**

 **just thought i'd get this out here before i, uh... do a thing.**

 **...**

 **/ahem**

 **uh... see ya?**

 **who even reads this smh**


	15. Quit without saving!

The dilapidated room is small and dark, the torches by the door having burnt out hours ago. The walls barely muffled the brewing storm outside which had drowned out most of what was going on within the room. At the center of the room was an old desk and behind it a worn-out swivel chair that squeaked as it was rocked back and forth. A man bored out of his mind was on said chair, humming and picking out the stuffing from a loose patch as he spun aimlessly. The man's singing was cut short when he heard the door swinging open (the light spilling from it almost blinding his eyes).

"You could have knocked." An amused smile crept its way on the man's face as the silhouette of a boy walked over. The kid took in a deep breath.

"I want to start over."

A frown took the place of the man's smile upon hearing these words, which caused him to sit straight in his seat. The boy had gone straight to the point — no fuss, no remarks — which was rather unusual, considering everything else about him was still there. His demeanor remained as arrogant as ever, the frown was still there on his face and he still spoke as if he had any authority in their 'clientele relationship.' The man turned fully to the boy, brows furrowed in curiosity, then asked, "What's changed your mind?"

The boy curls and uncurls his fists, fidgeting and stammering, as if saying what he wanted to say was a daunting task. Seeing this, the man's confusion turned into intrigue. He raised a brow, his expression turning smug. "Well? Go on."

The boy's eyes harden hearing this; he straightens his posture with a 'hmph' and balls his hands into fists, then snaps. "I get it, okay?! I messed up!"

"Finally," the man mumbles, rolling his eyes, "He admits it."

His client made a noise akin to a growl and without warning, slammed the desk in front of him, perfectly in sync with a burst of thunder from outside. Unaffected by the boy's outburst, the man only blinked. "Just let me try again, alright?! I won't screw this one up, I swear!"

"You say that, but then you mess up."

The boy didn't even let him finish. "Not unless I plan this right!" He says, his raised voice competing with the storm outside. "I'll fix all the flaws in the plan, if you could just give me some time."

The man frowns once more, his eyes narrowing at the boy, studying him. His clothes are wrinkled and messy, his hair matted and ruffled. From the heavy bags under his eyes, one could tell that he was exhausted.

If it wasn't for the obvious frustration radiating from him and the fact that they were having this conversation in the first place, the man would have worried for the boy's health.

Clearly, this whole thing meant a lot to him. After knowing him for so long, seeing him like this had made the man realize that this was the most determined he'd ever been for… well, _anything_. He was ambitious, that way. But he was also reckless (a trait the man knew all too well about), so the boy jumping in when the plan wasn't even complete didn't surprise him at all.

Which meant that him asking for a reset should have been expected.

Annoyed, the man began to drum his fingers against the table.

Four beats.

"You do realize that once you do this, there's no going back, right?" He says finally, breaking the awkward silence that had arisen. "This is your only chance."

"...I know."

"Then good."

The man got up from his chair quickly, startling the boy just a bit as he strolled around the desk. He held his client's shoulder and gave it a friendly pat, giving the boy just the smallest bit of a sense of security, before gripping it hard. He yelped as the man tightened his grip, dragging the younger man down a little and leaning into his ear. "You _better_ make this worth it, you hear me?"

He didn't give him any time to respond, not that the boy had the opportunity to in the first place, as he was too busy trying to get the pain to stop to even get a word out. "A full reset will cost the both of us a lot, so one reckless move and we're _**done**_. Understand?"

The younger boy nodded vigorously; his teeth were grit together as he brought his hand up, trembling in place as he debated between yanking the man's hand off or simply waiting for him to stop. Luckily for him the latter happened, and he couldn't help the heavy sigh of relief as he stumbled onto the desk. He barely caught himself from falling to the floor.

The man meanwhile only smirked. "Good." He walked on to the door, taking the knob as he gave the boy one last glance. "I'll meet up with you in ten."

Thunder had once again burst in the sky as he closed the door shut, leaving the boy alone in the dark with his thoughts.

* * *

 **A/N: i find it funny how this is 888 words idk why**

 **anyhow. This thing.** **It's getting a rewrite.**

 **woopee !**

 **i actually wrote this wayy back early to mid july, but i just didn't get around to uploading it now because of,, reasons. Anyway, yeah, I'm rewriting Turnabout Variation. I'm not sure if it's gonna be a vn or an interactive story or something else, yet. I'm still working on fixing some plot things.**

 **so uh.. just getting this out there :'D**

 **...uhm. I'm gonna go now hahaha.**

 **Have a nice day!**

 **\- mason**

 **edit;; oh ny god how could i forget- thanks to my friends for helping me with this one! Yknow.. proofreading and all that. :')**


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